The Outsider's Mark
by Desodus
Summary: At the brink of death, Jaune is visited by the mysterious Outsider, given his mark and the powers that come with it. Jaune now struggles to understand his role in the grand scheme of things as he utilizes the powers granted to him. (Crossover Elements with Dishonoured)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, this is Desodus here with another story... yeah.**

**Edit: Disclaimer: I Own Nothing**

* * *

**Prologue: Gifts from an Angel... or a Demon**

A young boy of about seven years of age panted as he ran through the forest; branches whipped past his face as he trampled bushes ad grass underfoot. He paid neither any heed as he continued to run.

He cried out in pain as his small body struck a tree.

He stood back up on shaking knees, one hand holding the tree trunk as he placed his weight on his remaining good leg.

There was a growl, followed by a strangled cry from the boy as he was struck once more, flying through the air to land upon stone groundwork.

The boy coughed blood as he tried to stand up, but his body no longer responded to his command, causing him to fall onto his back, left gazing upwards as the sound of air going through nostrils grew closer and closer.

Something drew his eye though; before him was a strangely built wooden table, lashed together by rope and odd pieces jutting upwards from the very back of it.

Candles were situated around the thing, and Jaune realized that maybe there was someone nearby.

Jaune tried to get enough air to scream for help, but was unsuccessful; he was only able to choke out a gurgle as he coughed. The taste of blood thick in his mouth.

The last thing Jaune ever saw was the bone plated skull, and the glowing red eyes of the Ursa before it opened its maw wide and everything went black.

* * *

Jaune gave a cry as he awoke; his body felt feverish and he was drenched in sweat. His hands wandered his body feeling for the injuries he had momentarily just received.

Finding none, Jaune took a deep breath as he looked around; he was back in his room, in his house, in his bed.

Not in a forest being hunted by an Ursa, an Ursa that he had purposely tried to fight.

Jaune pinched himself to make sure he wasn't still dreaming, and winced in pain as he felt slight sting. He scrunched up his face in confusion; he was sure what had occurred was no dream, that he was surely about to die... or was it truly just a bad dream?

Something caught Jaune's eye; to his left was _Crocea Mors_. Now Jaune was sure something was wrong; never had he been allowed to have the family sword in his room, it was supposed to be held in the family armory in the basement.

Picking the sword up with a grunt, Jaune held the weapon in both arms tightly to his chest as his arms slightly buckled under the weight of the weapon.

He pinched himself again to make sure he was truly awake this time.

He shivered as he remember his dream; it was so vivid, the blood, the pain, the Grimm, everything was so detailed, Jaune remembered every little bit of his dream.

Opening his room door, Jaune stepped out and began making his ways to the stairs, before coming up short; there were no stairs...

in fact, there was little of anything at all. As far as his eyes could see, Jaune was in some place that was very blue, and also very open.

Jaune took a look back where he had come from, on the other side of the door he had just exited was his room and his bed.

But this was definitely not his house though.

Creeping to the edge of where his platform, Jaune slowly took a look over the side to see emptiness, an abyss awaited down below.

Jaune gave a gasp as he jumped back as far as he could from the ledge.

His entire room had somehow separated from the rest of his home and was now floating aimlessly in some kind of blue void.

Now he was truly frightened. Where were his parents? Where was he for that matter?!

Jaune returned to his room as fast as possible, and remained sitting upon the covers of his bed for a while, clutching _Crocea Mors_ to himself like a safety blanket as his body was wracked with shivers.

Jaune hugged himself as he began to softly cry; he didn't know what to do, his parents were gone, he didn't know where he was, or what had happened to him to be here... maybe he was dead?

Odd, mother had told him that after dying, they would all go to a better place; this place was wholly empty and oddly colored.

_"Not as empty as you would think, Jaune"_ A sudden voice answered, speaking from nowhere, and everywhere at the same time.

Jaune wildly looked around sniffling as he did so, one arm coming up to wipe the snot running down his face as the other rubbed at his eyes, but there was still no one visible before.

Thinking he had imagined the voice, Jaune whimpered silently as he held himself.

_"Grieve not, Jaune"_ This time, Jaune was sure he had heard the voice and not just imagined it.

_"You are not dead, Jaune, just somewhere else for the time being"_ the voice continued speaking.

Jaune wildly looked around for the source of it, but was only greeted by the sight of his empty room.

That is, until a tear appeared in the very air before the foot of his bed and out stepped an adult man. The man was tall, with short brown hair, a leather jacket over a flowing shirt, black pants, knee high sleek black boots.

"W-Who are you?" Jaune asked, scrunching himself slightly to present a smaller target.

_"I go by many names"_ The thing before Jaune said cryptically; Jaune was sure whatever was in front of him wasn't human. _"But you may call me, the Outsider"_

"Whe-Where a-am I-I?" Jaune asked, stifling his sniffles as he looked at the being before him.

_"You are in my world, the Void"_ The one known as the Outsider explained. _"You see Jaune, great things are ahead of you in the future, great events and even greater struggles"_ A flash of burning pain filled Jaune's mind as the back of his left hand burned. _"This is my mark" _the Outsider said, gesturing to Jaune's hand where a symbol had been tattooed there. _"You have been chosen to wield forces beyond this world, my gift to you"_

With that said, the being known as the Outsider began to fade away; _"Come find me"_ he said at his parting.

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as his head was assaulted with knowledge about the uses of the powers he had just received from the Outsider.

Jaune was left panting upon his bed as the ability called "**BLINK**" was given to him' the power to instantaneously teleport a fixed distance from his starting position.

Now why would -

Jaune grabbed his headboard and held on as his room began to shake and rumble. _Crocea Mors _pressing uncomfortably into his chest as things began to fall off from their perches around his room; the lamp on his bedside table, a couple books from his bookshelf, and even a painting of a forest that hung on his fall fell.

But they never struck the floor.

Instead, Jaune watched slacked jaw as the things that should have hit the ground and in some cases shattered upon impact, began to float in the air.

The shaking finally stopped, so Jaune got off his bed on wobbly knees and moved towards his currently floating lamp.

The lamp hung suspended in the air and did not react to anything, not even when Jaune tried to snatch it back and place it onto his table once more.

The same went for the other items in the air. They remained stuck in the air and there was nothing Jaune could do to displace them afterwards.

It was then that Jaune noticed what had occurred outside his room; the empty expanse of sky had now been filled.

There were floating clumps of land everywhere now, like they had been just lifted straight from the ground, scooped up and deposited here for some unknown reason.

No, Jaune knew why they had suddenly appeared.

This was a test; _"Come find me"_ the Outsider had said before marking Jaune and disappearing.

Jaune once more made his way to the edge of his own floating room, once more looked down into the expanse of blue that went on, and on, and on, and on.

Jaune gave an audible gulp as he moved back from the ledge once more. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves before looking at the nearest floating isle and then at the mark upon the back of his left hand and then back at the floating isle nearby.

Jaune took several deep breaths as he remained sitting upon his floating room before standing up, slung _Crocea Mors_ over his shoulder onto his back.

He backed himself to the foot of his bed before crouching slightly in a bad imitation of a runner's starting stance and then shooting forward in a sprint before jumping off the ledge of his floating island.

Jaune pointed his left hand at the surface of the next island; _'There!'_ he thought as he was airborne. While airborne, Jaune had a good look at the emptiness once more below him, causing him to close his eyes as he tried not to think about freefalling for forever.

But all of Jaune's worries were for naught as he suddenly felt solid ground underneath his right foot. Jaune waited several seconds before putting down his left foot as well, and when nothing happened after that, Jaune finally opened his eyes to see he was indeed upon the next little floating isle.

Other than what felt like a slight drain upon his energy, he felt normal, well, as normal as one could be in this situation.

Jaune's hands once more roamed his own body to make sure everything was in its correct place before he released a breath that he didn't even know he had been holding before collapsing in a heap upon the stonework ground.

He looked up and followed the trail of floating islands that he would have to go through and saw that they were far more numerous than he expect or wanted.

He gave a sigh as he stood up once more, taking another deep breath before positioning himself at one end of the island and took another running jump towards the next one.

This time, Jaune did not close his eyes, he forced himself to watch as he pointed to a spot he wanted to get to and mentally told himself to be there.

And suddenly, in a flash of blue light and to the sound of displacing air, he was there; it was like someone had fast forwarded his vision as everything hyper focused onto the location he had mentally marked earlier, and then everything would return to normal as he arrived at his destination.

Jaune brushed himself off slightly as he took a look at the currently isle he was on and came face to face with an Ursa eating someone; its muzzle red with blood and gore.

Jaune covered his mouth as his stomach rebelled at what his eyes were currently telling him. He then lost the battle when he realized just _who_ the Ursa was eating...

The Grimm was eating _him_.

Frozen in time and positioned like a wax statue in a museum; the Grimm from earlier -whether from his dreams or actually reality, Jaune no longer knew- was positioned on all four over his own dead body.

Jaune met his dead counterpart's eyes and threw up once more.

Jaune rested on his knees with his eyes screwed shut, trying to get the image before him out of his mind. His body shivering once more from shock.

He remained kneeling for a while before he began feeling the ground around himself and began to slowly lead himself away from the image of his own death.

Eventually, Jaune's questing hands reached the end to the floating island and he nearly pitched his entire body forward at the loss of ground to touch, only holding himself up with one hand as he withdrew slightly from the edge and opened his eyes once more.

He looked forward, refusing to acknowledge what laid behind him as he focused all of his attention at the next stop on his hopping adventure.

From what Jaune could see, the next floating piece of land seemed like part of an interior of a large room; with tiled flooring and what looked like a large stage with figures on it.

The distance between islands also appeared slightly greater than previous jumps.

There was no helping it as Jaune took a small jump off the island he was on and targeted the closest piece of land in front on him; which turned out to be a jutting strip of tiled floor.

His vision once more tightened as he made his attempt to reaching the next floating location. And he did, landing on the narrow strip of floor tiling and nearly falling off because of it as his balance nearly failed him from bad foot positioning.

After a second of struggling to maintain balance, Jaune was able to make his way to the center of the island and see what laid here.

What was situated there were several figures, and from what Jaune was able to tell, they were all older teens; the first figure was a redheaded woman wearing bronze armor and held a circular shield in one hand and a javelin in the other. The next figure was of a young man with wielding dual pistol-like weapons. The last individual captured in this scene was another young woman, but unlike the first, this one held a large warhammer that easily rested upon one of her shoulders.

Jaune looked at these individuals with wide eyes. They looked really cool, calm and collected.

Jaune had no idea whom they were though, so he ended up passing them and making his way to the edge and towards the next island destination.

After 'blinking' from floating island to floating island for the past several minutes, Jaune's body could no longer take the strain and he had to sit down.

Jaune wiped the sweat from his brow as he sat on his haunches, leaning his back against the newest obstacle in this course created by the Outsider; which so happened to be a ledge he had to climb up, or most likely, 'blink' to the top.

Once a sufficient amount of energy was regenerated, Jaune turned to face the high wall and 'blinked' upwards, landing squarely at the edge.

And he then nearly fell backwards off the ledge as he came face to face with several beowolves right in front of him.

It was only the knowledge that nothing could move in this world except him that didn't cause him to wet himself at the sight of the endless horde of Grimm before him, because behind the beowolves were Ursas, Boarbatusks, Deathstalkers and many more that Jaune couldn't even fathom existed.

What was odd though, was that most of them were facing a singular direction; the same direction that Jaune was supposed to go towards to the next floating isle.

Jaune slowly made his way through the towering army of Grimm, ducking under claws, bone protrusions, pincers, fangs and even the occasional hairy leg.

Everywhere he looked there were Grimm, the feared monsters of the Remnant night. Though he knew they were to be feared, Jaune could not resist studying every single one he passed, being that close, even those they were technically not alive, but in such detail both intrigued and disturbed him.

Eventually, Jaune came to the end of the Grimm horde, and was faced now with an army of human before him; soldiers in thick armor and in tight formations as they face off against the Grimm horde.

In the middle ground where Jaune was currently standing, the two sides were clashing, frozen for all time.

There were dozens of human soldiers and Hunters fighting Grimm, but from what Jaune could see; the army of humans were severely outnumbered here, and it showed in as the figures fought frozen in time; many a soldier was hard-pressed to win against several opponents at the same time, even though the Hunters faired better, it was visible upon their faces to Jaune that the strain was affecting them.

Jaune moved passed this all and he finally came to the end of his journey; there were no longer any other floating islands to hop to.

Behind him lay the human-Grimm battlefield, and before him lay the blue expanse of the Void.

It was in the midst of this great expanse of blue sky that the Outsider once more appeared to Jaune, this time seemingly just building himself out of the air before him.

_"In the years to follow, your trials will be great, young Jaune"_ The Outsider said in his ethereal voice. _"Seek the runes bearing my mark in the forgotten places of your world and the shrines raised in my name. These runes will grant you power beyond other men"_ The mysterious being gestured to Jaune's left hand; _"Your mark will glow and burn as you draw near my runes"_

As the Outsider said that, the mark upon Jaune's left hand began to throb and pulse. The Outsider watched as Jaune followed the throbbing of his hand to one side far behind the human lines of the battle behind him to a wooden table-like structure, exactly like the one he had seen earlier with the Ursa.

But this time, Jaune realized that it was actually a shrine dedicated to the Outsider, and upon the shrine was a stone tablet held together by metal clamps that fit right into the palm of Jaune's hand.

_"How you use this power falls upon you, as it has to the others before you"_ The Outsider started talking again after Jaune had grasped the rune. _"And now you will return to your world, but know that I will be watching you with great interest"_

With those final parting words, everything went black for Jaune.

Seconds later, Jaune opened his eyes to find himself once more underneath the shrine dedicated to the Outsider, he was back in the forest he had been in earlier, but there was no sign of the Ursa from before.

There was also the uncomfortable feeling of his shirt stuck to his skin for some reason, so Jaune looked down, and from the moonlight shining in between the trees, he was just able to make out that his simple yellow shirt was now full of splotches of a dirty brown color, and that it stuck to his body.

It also itched something fierce.

Pulling his shirt away from his body, Jaune felt the now stiff material rub uncomfortably against his body as he stood up on wobbly legs.

Jaune stumbled forward and tripped over something, falling face first into the ground. Looking back at what had caused him to fall, Jaune saw the rune he had picked up earlier lying at his feet.

Crawling over to it, Jaune picked it up before standing up once more, putting the rune into his pant pocket.

Jaune looked around and began trying to figure out which direction was home.

* * *

"Jaune!" A female voice shouted through the night. "Jaune, where are you?"

"Dear, please, keep your voice down" Someone beside the woman admonished. "There are many Grimm in the forest, more so when night falls, Joan"

"Do not tell me to keep my voice down, John!" The woman nearly shouted in anger. "Our son is missing, and Monty be damned if we don't find him!"

The woman's voice cracked as she nearly entered hysterics at the thought of losing her only child.

John Arc gave a sigh as he turned to one of the villagers in their little band of searchers; "Have you found anything?" He asked, shifting _Crocea Mors_ to his other hand as he scratched his head.

"Someone reported that there were signs of a struggle further ahead" the other man answered, send furtive looks into the surrounding dark forest every now and then. "We must hurry"

"Then lead the way!" Jaune's mother cried.

The village man looked to John for confirmation, and John nodded. With that, the group of several villagers and a couple hunters pushed their way deeper into the dark forest.

The scene the group of people came to was not pretty; there were trees splintered everywhere, blood, and the ground had bee torn up and dirt had been flung everywhere.

Joan Arc gave a gasp and covered her mouth in shock before she began to cry, clinging onto her husband for support. John Arc held his wife close as she cried into his shoulder.

Several of the accompanying villagers lowered their heads in silence.

One of the other Hunters in the group came up and placed a hand on John's remaining shoulder; "I'm sorry, John" He said. "We were too late"

John Arc said nothing as he held his wife close as she began to wail. "Let's... Let's go back now... Joan" he said softly after a moment of silence and crying. "There's nothing left here"

John Arc tried to steer his wife away from the scene of carnage, but met resistance when Joan pushed him away and began shaking her head.

"No, no, Jaune's not dead!" she denied, shaking amidts the group.

"Honey... please" John said, facing his hysterical wife. "We need to leave... Now!"

"Not until we find Jaune!" Joan argued, tears no longer falling down, replaced with anger.

"Jaune'-!..." John couldn't bring himself to say those words for a moment. "... Jaune's dead" he finished softly, turning from his wife, unable to look at her now.

"No!" Joan denied once more. "I refuse to believe that!"

"We need to go!" someone said from behind John Arc. "It's closing to midnight!"

"Joan! Please!" John said, pleading with his wife. "We can return lat-!"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off as the unmistakable sound of bushes moving and twigs being snapped was heard by the group. Everyone turned to the direction of the source of the sound and saw brush trembling and shaking from something.

Weapons were drawn and John Arc leaped forward to grab his wife and place her behind him; she would be more of a liability now than an asset.

But there was no need as what came out of the bushes before the group was none other than the missing boy, Jaune Arc.

"M-Mom? Da-Dad?" his familiar voice was heard.

"Jaune!" John breathed out.

"Jaune!" Joan cried rushing around her dumbstruck husband to get to her son's side.

"... Mom" Jaune said one last time before slumping forward, falling unconscious.

Whisperings and mutterings were heard as the other villagers came closer to get a good look at the boy, bring with them the light of several lanterns.

Said whispering and muttering grew in crescendo when the state of Jaune's clothes and body were brought to light.

Several others clapped John Arc on the back at the safe return of his son, while Joan cradled Jaune to herself in a tight embrace.

But no one noticed that John Arc was not celebrating at the safe return of his son, because if one were to look closely at John Arc, one would see that his focus was indeed upon his unconscious son, but was utterly focused upon his left hand.

* * *

**So I wrote this when I was playing through Dishonored a second time. I will be writing about his years before Jaune actually enters Beacon Academy in this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, and welcome all to another chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the intellectual properties.**

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**Chapter One: Nostalgia Can Get You Killed**

**Nine Years Later**

A Beowolf raised its head and sniffed the air, giving a low growl as it whirled around, its pack mates followed suite as they too perceived the new scent in the air.

The group as one growled at the direction of the interloper as they fanned out and began taking loping strides forward.

They stopped when the scent finally showed itself to them; It was a person of slight above-average stature shrouded in a tattered and dirty black cloak that stood before them. Nothing was discernible from the person, not even their gender.

The Beowolves growled threatening at the individual, and some crouched onto all four, ready to spring at the human before them.

As one, the group of a half dozen beowolves charged at the human, crossing the distance in scant seconds, but that was more than enough time for the human to react.

With a casual flick on the human's left hand, four of the beowolves were thrown to the far end of the clearing by the sudden appearance of a gale of wind.

The last two beowolves continued their attack regardless of the incapacity of their brethren. Just as they reached the human, almost impossible fast, the human drew a simply designed long sword from underneath his cloak, and in one fell swoop, easily cutting through both of the attacking Beowolves in a single slash.

The human turned to the other Beowolves whom were just starting to get back up from their entanglement upon the forest floor, and the person began to run at the disoriented Beowolves.

But the Beowolves were quick to their own feet, giving loud angry snarls at the human coming at them.

When the human was but a scant meter in front on the Beowolves, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light. Drawing a moment of confusion from the beowolves, as the human's scent disappeared for a moment, to only reappear beside the Beowolf on the farthest right.

Said Beowolf only was able to give a startled yelp as the sword entered its body from behind, to come out the other side of its body, right through where the figurative heart was located.

Two of the remaining Beowolves took great swipes at the figure with their large paws. One was thrown through the air for a second time, while the second one was soon impaled upon the long sword like the previous one.

The last standing Beowolf leaped from his spot near the figure, but just as it was about to land on the human, said person disappeared for a second time, causing the sharp claws of the Beowolf to tear through thin air.

The Beowolf landed on all four and easily turned its body around to once more face the human. At the same time, the other Beowolf that had struck a tree had regained its bearing and was now circling the human's other side.

The human's focus was only upon the left most Beowolf, and so the one circling ended up in the human's blind spot, and attacked from there.

Suddenly, everything stopped moving; the falling leaves hung suspended in mid air as they fell from the trees, The blowing wind had stopped, the leaping Beowolf was frozen in mid air, one could easily see the bone detail and state of its fur up-close without harm. There was complete silence in the clearing.

But then the silence was broken by the sound of someone exhaling, because not everything was frozen in time; the lone figure caught in between the two Beowolves casually gave a roll of its shoulders.

Turning to the Beowolf in mid air, the person easily beheaded the Grimm before turning to face the sole remaining one -still frozen in time- before making his way to it in quick strides, a mental countdown descending in his head; _'Six. Five. Four...'_

He reached 'Two' just as he arrived before the last Beowolf and raised his left hand, where a wrist-mounted gun appeared just as time caught back up and reverted to its normal speed.

An almost look of confusion passed across the bone skull of the Beowolf at the sight of its prey so close before there was a single shot fired and the human remained the only living thing left in the clearing.

Total time for the fight lasted a mere twenty-five seconds.

The guy gave another sigh, this time of relief as he threw back his cowl to reveal a head of messy blond hair, a clean shaven face, and deep blue eyes.

Using a part of the tattered cloak to wipe away the dark ichor of the Grimm blood off his sword, Jaune finally turned his attention small trail leading off to one side of the clearing.

He knew what laid at the end of that trail, he had been fighting for the majority of the morning to get here for a reason, and what laid here for whatever number of years was more than worth the time spent clearing away the surrounding Grimm.

Not too long later, Jaune arrived at what he sought; in a simple grove, not worn by the elements or age, was a simple wooden structure hidden amongst the trees and vines, but that was not what truly drew Jaune's attention; what he had come for was the small portable object simply resting upon the wooden surface.

A rune of the Outsider.

The marked stone flashed once when Jaune's hand came into contact with it, seemingly burning with life as Jaune furled back his cloak to reveal a satchel.

Deftly pulling the zipper back, Jaune placed the rune in its new home alongside three others.

Once back in the clearing, with the bodies of the Grimm having dissipated into smoke and gone to Monty knows where, Jaune paused as highly tuned senses in ambush-ery and backstabber-y began sounding alarm bells inside his head.

Jaune stopped walking once he arrived at the center of the clearing, there he unfurled his cloak once more as a sign of confidence as he visibly placed a hand upon the pommel of his sword.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Jaune shouted into the surrounding forest his face set into a scowl.

But there was no answer from the silent forest before him.

Jaune waited a heartbeat more before speaking again; "If you do not show yourself, then I will just have to come find you!"

He waited another moment, and just as Jaune was about to go forth on his word and drag out whomever was watching him, they graciously showed themselves first.

The first individual was a tall man, taller than Jaune himself, and looked slightly older as well, though that was harder to tell through the white face mask he wore. He had brown hair that was streaked with red highlights, but two fringes were black and slicked backwards as well. The guy seemed to be wearing some kind of suit variation as he wore a highly embroiled black suit-jacket over a red shirt and black pantsuits. He was also carrying a short sword of some kind, though Jaune was sure it was not of Vale design.

The guy's companion was much more... striking than him; it was a girl first off, with long flowing black hair that fell in a curtain down her back, she too wore a white face mask that covered the upper part of her face, excluding her nose and mouth, she appeared to be wearing a white tank top and boy-shorts underneath a vastly altered black tailcoat, she had on also black leggings that faded to purple as they met up with her heels.

The two sides watched each other as seconds passed. Jaune remained unmoving, the only hint was the barest tightening of his hand around the pommel of his sword.

"Who are you two?" Jaune asked, eyes roaming from one to the other.

"The same could be said to you" the male answered, there was a undertone of violence in his words that Jaune clearly understood as he widened his stance.

"We were sent here for the same reason you were" the girl answered, giving her male companion a sharp glance through her mask as she tried to not cause a fight to break out.

"And what reason is that?" Jaune asked, he highly doubted that statement, but decided to play along for a while.

"The eradication of the entrenched Grimm in the area, of course" the girl answered again as her companion remained silent, crossing his arms over his chest.

_'So they say they have been sent for by the village'_ Jaune thought to himself, eyeing the two of them. They _did _look very young for Hunters. _'Time to play dumb'_

"I hadn't know the village had sent for Hunters" Jaune called out. "In fact, I was under the impression that a village runner was just sent... this morning"

Jaune watched the two of them pause, before sharing a glance before facing him once more.

"It is of none of your business" the male growled out, shifting in his spot, agitated by something.

"That's completely fine by me" Jaune answered before taking a glance at an imaginary watch upon his wrist. "And if you two would move out of the way, I have a long trip ahead of me"

Jaune slowly made his way forward until he stood within a meter or so in front of the two of them, sadly, they had decline to make out of the way for him.

Jaune Arc cocked his head to the side as the two people in front of them remained where they were standing; directly in front of the path leading back to the village and the dirt road that lead back to the larger cities of Vale.

Though he could not see her eyes, Jaune could see the tight frown upon the uncovered part of the girl's face.

"We've actually come here to meet with you in person... Marked Man" the girl said after a moment of hesitation.

Jaune gave a humourless smile at that alias.

* * *

**Four Years Earlier**

_A twelve-year-old Jaune gave a sigh as he casually left through the back entrance of the nightclub; it had been pretty easy breaking in and stealing from the owner's office, and now Jaune was several thousand Lien richer because of it._

_It was during this night that Jaune suddenly felt the burning upon his left hand, giving a quick glance at his gloved hand, he hastily began to look around, slowing his pace to get a better read on the location of the rune or charm._

_Jaune's slow pace eventually brought him to a much less visited part of the city; a place full of the seedy underbelly of society. Jaune had refrained from stepping foot in this area for a while, in fact, he was surprised that there was even a rune here, given that he passed by the exact same area several times the past month._

_Jaune followed his mark all the way until he reached what looked like a pier; there were rows of warehouses and a slew of docks, though, only a single dock was seeing usage at the moment, where several men in black suits and hats were unloading crate after crate from a boat that would speed off and then return with more crates to unload._

_It was just Jaune's luck that wherever they were dropping off their cargo seemed to be the same place where the rune was located._

_Jaune looked around for a good vantage place to follow the henchmen and ended up blinking to the roof of one of the nearby warehouses and followed them from above, keeping an eye out for more of them or any sudden development._

_Jumping from roof to roof, eventually, Jaune was led to a nondescript warehouse situated slightly away from the others on the pier. This place was most definitely where the rune was located; other than the fact his left hand was pulsing to its own pop beat, the place was heavily guarded as well, where Jaune could see more than a few milling around the building and one or two on the roof as well. Most of them seemed to be armed with melee weapons, but Jaune could see the bulge of a few handguns amongst the guards._

_Jaune peeked over the crest of his building to check on the guards on the opposite roof, and to begin formulating a plan to get inside without being detected._

_he looked down upon the satchel hanging diagonally across his chest, without opening it, he knew exactly how many runes were inside; a grand total of 7. He had been saving up to fully unlock his BEND TIME Ability._

_Jaune bit his lip, this could easily turn bad and force him into a confrontation against the armed men. Jaune was not sure if he was ready to take another person's life again._

_He gave a quiet sigh, he knew that these people were not good people per se, but that didn't mean they had to die for Jaune's gains. Humanity was already a remnant of its former self, it did not need more dead._

_Jaune has resolved himself to never take a human life again... but that didn't mean he wouldn't fight if necessary or knock his opponents unconscious._

_He turned on Dark Vision and watched as everything went through a brownish filter before the henchmen were highlighted in neon yellow as they continued on their patrols. The guards on the roof were facing the other way._

_A Perfect opportunity for Jaune to sneak in._

_He switched his wrist mounted pistol from semiautomatic to single shot tranquilizer rounds. BLINKING to the warehouse door, checking to make sure the guards were still occupied somewhere else, Jaune took a look through the keyhole, rotating his body around to get a better view of the interior._

_Jaune was able to see shelves upon shelves of crates piled high to the ceiling. Jaune had no clue what they were and what they were for because his attention was solely upon the glowing rune at the far end of the warehouse where the offices were located._

_Making one more check through the keyhole, and then one for the guards outside with him, Jaune attempted to open the door..._

_To surprise, the main door was left unlocked, it didn't even squeak when he opened it and closed it gently behind him as he entered the warehouse._

_Still looking around with DARK VISION, Jaune was astounded to not see anyone else inside the warehouse with him._

_It seemed like the thought they were more than protected with the guards outside. Well, this worked fine for Jaune as well._

_He turned off his Dark Vision and blinked several times to adjust himself to the color change before he crept his way forward, keeping an eye out for anything that he could also use along the way to the rune._

_Jaune tested the office door and found it too was unlocked. Opening the desk drawer, Jaune came face to face with the Outsider's rune. But just as his hand encompassed the stone, a thought ran through his head;_

This was far too easy... Jaune had had a harder time stealing from Junior and his club.

_It was with that thought that suddenly, the lights turned on, blinding Jaune momentarily._

_He whirled around to race for the door, but it was too late as the audible sound of running feet and shouts were heard._

_Jaune cursed as he quickly pocketed the rune and questions ran through his mind a thousand a minute. Stuff like: _'Who had known that someone would try to steal an old piece of rock?'_ or _'Where had the alarm been?' _or more pressingly _'How do I get myself out now?'

_Jaune exited the office room to see the entire warehouse now lit up like it was Christmas. Jaune cursed again as he was left with nowhere to hide. That is, until his eyes came across a fuse box right next to him. Not believing his luck, Jaune quickly opened the metal box and began pulling wires, when that failed, he used his sword to stab directly into the wires._

_That had the desired effect as the majority of the lights went out, but Jaune had no time to take out the remaining lights as the henchmen came closer and closer._

'I guess I'm going to have to fight my way out after all...'_ Jaune thought to himself as he pulled out his trusty sword and his wrist mounted pistil gave a _hiss _as a tranquilizer round was chambered._

_The sound of shouting and running feet got even closer and closer, but Jaune was already moving as fast as he could around the other side of the warehouse._

_Jaune hid at one end of a row of shelves as one of the henchmen made his way down the row towards him, this one armed with a concealable axe he was currently brandishing._

_Putting Aura in his arms and legs, Jaune waited for the henchmen to pass his hiding spot before leaping at his unprotected back, one arm snaking around his throat while the other covered his mouth. Since Jaune was of a much smaller stature than the henchman, Jaune dragged the two of them to the ground; where the henchmen proceeded to try to break out of Jaune's Aura enhance grip for a moment, even flailing his limbs around for a little bit before his movements became lax and he finally stopped moving._

_Jaune released the slumped body and checking his pulse, found him to still be alive, just unconscious. Jaune gave a sigh of relief as he got back up and continued on his way._

_Not a moment too soon as a minute later, there were sounds of agitated shouting from behind Jaune, where the unconscious henchman laid._

_Jaune wildly looked around; there were henchmen coming from behind him, and he could see several others making their way towards him as well._

_Jaune's wild searching eventually landed upon the very tops of the shelves themselves, and there, Jaune got a new idea._

_He quickly blinked to the top of the shelf beside him, crouching to diminish his profile from the harsh lights of the warehouse._

_Jaune watched as the two groups of henchmen met directly underneath him, several heated words were exchanged before the two groups separated and continued combing through the warehouse._

_Now that Jaune had some time to think, he realized that now would be a good time to gain full access to his BEND TIME Ability and test it out now._

_Jaune laid down to hide as much of himself as possible before closing his eyes i deep concentration, sifting through a myriad of abilities until he found the complete version of his BEND TIME Ability._

_Seconds later, Jaune felt a rush of power as the weight upon his chest from where the runes were gathered disappeared as the runes themselves dissolved into nothingness. _

_With a simple distinct clenching of his fist, time froze to a complete standstill as his vision turned into grey scale._

_Jaune had no time to marvel at the frozen state of everything as he BLINKED back onto the warehouse floor and sprinted his way to the exit of the warehouse._

_He had just exited the building when the effects of BEND TIME began to fade to his surprise, but no matter, Jaune was already almost home free._

_That was, as he stepped out of the warehouse, he walked right into a Dust round, knocking him back into the warehouse hard enough to throw him against the opposite wall, Jaune slumped down unconscious._

* * *

_Jaune awoke to a stiffness in his hands, feet and neck. He tried to rube some of that stiffness away, but found to his surprise that he could not move his arms, let alone his hands._

_With a jolt, Jaune remembered the last thing he saw was a bright flash of red before he had lost consciousness. Looking around, Jaune realized that he was back in the Clubhouse he had stolen from earlier._

_In fact, he was in the exact same office he had taken the money from too. _

_In the middle of Jaune's studying did the door to the room open and his captor entered. Said individual was quite tall with ginger hair and green eyes, wearing a black bowler hat, red-collared white suit, a grey scarf fastened like a necktie, and black pants, gloves and shoes. He also carried with him a walking cane of all things, but Jaune could see that he had no walking disabilities._

_"Well, well, well" the man said as he dragged a chair and sat down in front of Jaune. "Look who finally woke up!"_

_The man gave a cheeky grin at Jaune._

_"What do you want with me?" Jaune tried to sound tough, but the fact that his voice cracked in the midst of that sentence told otherwise._

_The man before him gave a smile at Jaune's act, even going as far as to ruffle Jaune's hair in a sort of 'nice try, sport' fashion._

_Jaune tried to recoil from the touch, but while tied to a chair, he couldn't do much._

_Jaune gave a yelp as the hand in his hair suddenly grabbed a fistful of it a tugged hard, bring his head up to look into his captor's._

_"Listen good, kid" his captor said, all trace of jolliness gone from his face. "I know what you are; you've been marked by the Outsider, so that already makes you a special snowflake. From where's you're sitting you've got two options and two options only; One, you join me and my merry band of thieves, or two, you die" The man released Jaune's hair and sat back in his seat. "You've got chops kid, I like that in you, I took the honor of going through your pockets, and found quite a bit of cash on you, cash taken from this very room. You've got some kill in the art of stealing, but that's just amateur stuff, with me, you could steal anything, rob any place, Dust, you could steal the panties off women if you wanted!"_

_Jaune's captor gave a bark of laughter while Jaune gave him a confused look as if saying; 'Why in the world would I want to steal underwear from girls?'_

_"But anyway, since you've been marked by the Outsider, that means you can do some amazing things, things that allow you to easily bypass security systems and guards with ease, though these henchmen aren't much..." His face turned sour for a moment. "But that doesn't matter, join me kid, and the world is your oyster!"_

_"What if I chose option three?" Jaune suddenly asked._

_"What option three?" Jaune's captor asked in a bored tone._

_"This one!" Jaune cried as he surged forward in his chair._

_But nothing happened. A look of shock came upon Jaune's face as he continued to struggle against bindings that should have been blown off when he used his WIND GUST against the chair. He tried again, but nothing happened again._

_Jaune turned his look of shock at his captor who was wearing a smile again. "Can't seemed to get the juice going, huh?" he asked, leaning back in his chair as one hand came up and began to lazily trace through the air._

_It took a moment for Jaune to realized that the man before him was not just aimlessly doodling with his finger in the air but was following a tune the filtered through the room. The melody sent shivers down Jaune's back for some reason._

_"That is the sound of restraint!" the man before Jaune said as he stopped following the music with his finger. "I stole this weird music machine from some business man's luggage on the docks a few months ago, never understood why it was built for a man to wear on their chest... that is, until I found out whatever the music machine does was that it stopped the powers of the Outsider from working!"_

_Jaune's mouth was wide open at that revelation and he continued to struggle in his bonds, trying time after time again to use any of his powers, but to no avail._

_"So what's you answer, kid?" Jaune's captor asked. "Well, it's not like you got much of a choice anyway" he noted with a shrug. "You've got talent, moxy, and even the beginnings of roguish charm. You kinda remind me of myself back in the day. Think if it this way, kid: me and you together? The sky's the limit!"_

_Jaune sagged in his seat, he really had no choice in this situation, unarmed and without the aid of his abilities, Jaune could put up a strong fight with his Aura alone, but even then he doubt he could take on the man before him._

_"Fine, I accept" Jaune said after a while, though he had no real plans as to actually join with this man. But he was going to do anything at the moment to get those bonds off of him._

_"That's great!" Jaune's captor said as he stood up. "The name's Roman Torchwick!"_

_With that, Roman turned on his heels and made to leave the room, leaving Jaune still tied to the chair._

_"Wait!" Jaune called after his retreating figure. "Aren't you going to untie me?"_

_"Nope!" Roman said over his shoulder as he closed the door. A second later, the lights turned off as well._

* * *

**Present Time**

"I hadn't known that Roman was hiring out people to come kill me" Jaune noted as he flexed his left hand.

"Roman?" The girl asked out loud before turning to her partner. _"Roman!?"_

Her partner remained silent, only proceeding to unsheathe his katana.

But the girl was not done talking to him; "Since when did we associate ourselves with the likes of Roman Torchwick!?"

"Orders are orders" the male said simply as he entered a fighting stance. "And we follow orders"

"But-!" The girl was unable to finish whatever she was about to say as she suddenly found her right hand raised perpendicular to the ground and felt a small peck upon the back of her hand as Jaune suddenly disappeared from right in front of them.

Her male partner instantly whirled around and began rushing back towards the direction of the main roads.

The girl was left slightly dazed by what had just happened as her mind began to piece together the sequence of events that led to her current position. While she didn't outright blush, a hint of color splashed across her cheeks as she turned around and followed after her partner.

* * *

**So here is the twist on the upbringing of Jaune. I will probably have several more flashback sequences detailing his time with Roman, his departure from Roman's group, and even what Jaune was doing before being taken under Roman's wing... Maybe add a little Neo into the mix... maybe.**

**Anyway, I feel like I should make Jaune more ruthless or maybe not depending entirely if I want him killing actual people in my story.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Desodus here to drop off the new chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own zero intellectual content shown here.**

* * *

**Chapter Two: A Wild Ride**

_Jaune looked around, he knew where he was, he knew this hallway like the back of his hand. Because it always started like this._

_It was like Jaune was a passenger inside his own body; he knew what was going to happen, but for the life of him, he could never stop it, never look away._

_He watched as his body moved without his own input, watched through his own eyes as one of his hands came up to hold onto the wall as he leaned forward to peek through the slight crack of the not fully closed door._

_He watched as two figures argued, getting more and more heated as they did so. He watched as soon enough, the two people in the room were practically shouting at each other, hands and arms waved around for emphasis as fingers began being pointed as well._

_But Jaune is never able to understand what they are talking about. Maybe because his mind has yet to truly comprehend what was happening before, or maybe because Jaune never wants to remember what was said, ever again._

_And then it happens._

_Like it always happened._

_The man walks forward, towards the door, the light from the room illuminate a shining long sword in one of his hands. The woman grabs onto the arm holding the sword, trying to hold him back._

_Back from doing what though?_

_Jaune knew what. But Jaune had no control over his body, so no matter how hard he tried to force his body to run away, to hide, to just get away from the door... But to no avail._

_Jaune was forced to watch as the man threw off the restraining arm of the woman grew closer and closer to the door, but more importantly, closer to him._

_Jaune's body finally backed away from the door, but Jaune knew this was all part of what came next regardless; Jaune felt his back hit the opposite wall of the hallway as the door swung open._

_For a second the man stood in the hallway with a confused look upon his face at the sight of Jaune against the hall right in front of him._

_There was a piercing shriek from inside the room as the woman caught sight of Jaune._

_The look of confusing disappeared from the man's face as he raised the sword._

_Jaune watched as the man stepped closer and closer before finally, the sword swung down._

_The last thing Jaune heard before everything went dark was; _

_"I'm sorry"_

* * *

**Present Day**

Sixteen year old Jaune lurched forward, hands coming up to cover his exposed head from the fatal attack.

But nothing happened, there was no pain, no blood, not even any screaming. It took a moment for Jaune to realize that he was not in that hallway anyway, and was in fact currently covering himself in his cushioned seat.

Jaune's mind finally caught back up to him as he remembered that he was currently on a train headed towards the heart of Atlas. He looked around, hoping that no one had seen his little display, and too his relief, it was still too early for most people to be awake.

It was still dark outside the window of the train car, the first faint rays of sunlight were just being to lit up the sky.

Jaune wiped sweat from his brow as he sat back into his seat, giving a heavy sigh as he clutched his cloak tighter around himself as he shivered slightly, even though the train had climate control initiated for its passengers for a perfect refreshing feeling while onboard.

Jaune tried to lean back and fall asleep once more, but his mind refused to comply. The recurring nightmare from early had once more robbed him of sleep.

With a sigh, Jaune stood up and stretched. hearing the satisfying sound of his back and arms cracking as he used sleeping muscles.

He made his way down the passenger car in search of the bathroom.

After relieving himself, Jaune was not sure what he could actually be doing at the moment; the train didn't arrive for another couple of hours.

So after a moment of thought, Jaune decided to explore the other parts of the train.

After passing through several more compartments full of people sleeping, Jaune finally stumbled upon something different; it was a literal restaurant situated in a single train compartment. There were tables with cutlery, and even several waiters milling around.

One of said waiters made his way towards Jaune. "Greetings, sir" He said, bowing slightly. "Are you a... first class purchaser"

Jaune had the amusement to watch the waiter slightly sniff in disdain when he caught sight of Jaune's attire, but he paid it no heed.

"No, I do not" Jaune answered as he continued looking around the built in train restaurant. " And since I presume that I would be unable to eat here, could you tell me if there is someplace I could purchase food or snacks aboard this train?"

"We have a concession stand in the next car" the waiter said with a stiff nod, pointing to the door at the other end of the compartment. "It will be just on your right"

"Thank you" Jaune said as he made to move past the waiter, but then paused, before pulling at the fabric of his tattered cloak until it was all off, Jaune bunched it up into a bundle and turned to the waiter once more: "Do you have a trash bin I could use?"

Jaune's amusement rose as the waiter got an actual look at what Jaune was wearing. The waiter's look of surprise gave Jaune a slight grin.

Jaune was currently wearing a light grey suit jacket over a slightly darker grey dress shirt and black slacks with black casual shoes, cutting Jaune an impressive figure once he was uncovered from the tattered cloak.

"Y-Yes, right here, sir" the waiter said before gesturing to one of his fellows behind him.

The other waiter rushed over with a trash bin in hand and held it open for Jaune to deposit his ruined cloak. Jaune gave a nod of thanks to the two waiters as he dusted his hands and made his way to the next compartment.

Jaune exited the restaurant compartment before having a small chuckle at the flustered waiters. True to his word though, there was indeed a concession stand in this compartment, in fact, there was also a few arcade stations set up in along the sides.

Jaune walked up to the stand to see that it was completely automated; a machine with several attached robotic arms sat behind the counter, and behind that were several food choices.

Jaune had to do a double take when he saw the menu board, not because of the food on the menu, but at the prices for said food. _'And they called me a thief...' _Jaune grumbled in his head as he pulled out his wallet to pay the exuberant price of fifteen lien for a chicken salad sandwich, a bottle of water, and a bag of chips.

Jaune made his way back to his seat, munching on the chips along the way before plopping back onto the cushiony material of his seat, still eating his dwindling supply of chips as he looked out at the passing scenery.

"Is this seat taken?" A sudden, female voice asked.

Jaune turned around and froze, his mouth still full of chips, a look of surprise upon his face. But after a brief second to compose himself and a hard swallow to put down the chips, Jaune gave a short shake of his head, leading to the speaker to sit across from him.

"I'm impressed" Jaune said after taking a swig of water. "It's only been two months, whoever you two are, you're very good, I'll give you that" Jaune cast an eye around the compartment of people waking up. "Where's your partner, the tall guy?"

Jaune turned back to face the girl from before, though, now she seemed to have discarded the Grimm face mask, showing off amber eyes that slanted slightly like a cat's.

"I'm not here to kill you" the girl said calmly, her hands clasped together in her lap.

"Really?" Jaune asked, still looking around for her partner. "Because if anyone on this train gets hurt as a consequence of you or your partner... mark my words; I will kill the two of you"

The girl did not back down from Jaune's intense probing gaze. "I. Am. Not. Here. To. Kill. You." she said, making sure to punctuate each word.

Jaune sat back after a moment of staring against the girl. "So let's say I _do _believe you..." Jaune began. "You still haven't answered; Where is your partner?"

"We are no longer partners" she answered calmly.

"Is that a fact?" Jaune asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well... then, Blake, you don't mind me calling you Blake, do you? or would you prefer Ms. Belladonna?"

"How do you-?" Blake wasn't able to finish as Jaune interrupted her.

"I made a few calls after our little meeting in the woods, accessed a few videos, some minor stuff" Jaune said flippantly. "Though it did provide me with one concrete fact; the White Fang are gearing up for something, with all the Dust and weapons you've had Roman steal for your little militia army"

"I am no longer associated with the White Fang" Blake answered, shifting in her seat. "I've cut all ties"

"Okay, so let's go back to the whole 'believing' part I said earlier" Jaune said, giving her a curious look before scanning the area again. "Because I'm not saying I do, but at least I know you're not lying about your partner; he really is not here"

"How are you-?" Blake began again, but was once more cut off.

"A party trick I picked up" Jaune answered, tapping the side of his head before he sat back in his seat. "So now this brings up another question; Why are you here, and why were you looking for me?"

"I wasn't looking for you" Blake answered as Jaune raised an eyebrow is disbelief. "I was leaving Vale behind when I came across you when you were buying food earlier"

"... That's a hell of a coincidence" Jaune noted.

"It's the truth" was Blake's reply.

"So, you're not here to kill me; we met by accident; and now we're talking... Where do we go now from here?" Jaune asked, tapping his cheek with a finger.

"I don't know" Blake answered, looking out the window. "But you could tell me your name" she turned back to fix Jaune with a piercing look.

"Oh, I did forget to introduce myself" Jaune noted as he leaned forward towards Blake. "Call me Miles Luna" Jaune said as he took her right hand and placed a kiss upon the back of it, like he had in the forest.

This time, Jaune had the chance to see the slight flush creep upon Blake's face after the kiss.

Jaune gave a knowing smile at her reaction. Blake saw it, and tried to push the flush down, but to no avail, as her cheeks took on a red hue.

Blake quickly snatched her hand back from Jaune's grasp and turned away, looking through the other side of the train compartment.

"Is it true?" she asked, still not looking at Jaune. "Were you really Torchwick's right-hand-man?"

"Once upon a time, yes" Jaune answered.

"Why did you leave him?" Blake asked, turning back to face Jaune with a curious look upon her face.

Jaune gave a small smile at her question. "Why did you leave the White Fang?" He asked in return.

Neither one answered the question presented to them, so the two of them sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while, well, until Jaune decided to start eating his sandwich.

"Would you like some?" Jaune asked, gesturing to Blake with one half of his chicken salad sandwich.

"No thank you" Blake answered quietly. Jaune shrugged and began eating his expensive sandwich alone.

"So, what are you planning to do now that you are 'out'?" Jaune asked after his first bit of his sandwich, which resulted in him giving it a grimace before putting it back in its wrapper, the rest to remain uneaten.

"I will strive to be a Huntress" Blake answered, looking directly into Jaune's eyes, as if daring him to rebuke her for some reason.

Jaune said nothing for a moment, but steadily regarded Blake. "Isn't the Vale Beacon Academy that way?" he said after a moment, jerking a thumb opposite the direction the train was traveling.

"I have unfinished business first" Blake answered simply.

Jaune caught the slight tightening of her fist at her answer, but said nothing, instead, he sat back once more in his seat before taking a glance at the watch upon his wrist; about an hour left until the train arrived at their destination.

"Why are _you_ traveling to Atlas?" Blake asked.

Jaune mulled over the question, deciding whether or not to give an actual answer, before finally replying: "I need to do a little treasure hunting" he answered coyly with a smile.

"So _it is_ true" Blake breathed out. "You truly have been marked by the Outsider"

"Well yes" Jaune confirmed. "I didn't take the moniker; 'Marked Man' because of some disfiguring scar or something like that" he gave another smile. "I truly have been 'gifted' powers from the Outsider"

"May I see it?" Blake suddenly asked.

Jaune said nothing, but raised an eyebrow yet again at Blake, but Blake did not back down, meeting Jaune's eyes waiting for an answer. Jaune finally shifted as he grasped the fingers of the glove upon his left and began tugging it off. Revealing to Blake the mark tattooed upon the back of said hand almost ten years prior by the Outsider.

Blake leaned forward to get a better look at it, but dared not touch the hand upon which the mark was on. Her eyes roamed over the design, studying it for several seconds before sitting back into her own seat.

Jaune easily placed the leather glove back on.

"Not much has been written on the Outsider" Blake said, looking at Jaune. "Though sightings of him date back even before the Great War"

"I know" Jaune answered. "I checked the same records you probably did" Jaune gave a humourless smile. "_Those caught in worship of him were sent to death upon the charges of 'heresy and black magic'_" Jaune recited. "They actively tried to suppress the knowledge of, and the spreading of the Outsider as quick as they could, whether from fear or-"

Jaune suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and turned from Blake to look out through the window, eyes narrowing as he gazed out.

Blake followed his gaze, but there was nothing to actually see, the train was currently passing through a mountain range, so the scenery was dominated by dirt, rocks, and hills.

"Apologies... Blake" Jaune said, standing up suddenly. "But it appears this is my stop..."

"Blake turned back from the window to question Jaune, but found herself now sitting alone, Jaune having already disappeared.

Turning back to the window, Blake's enhanced vision was able to make out Jaune and his grey suit jacket currently cresting a hill almost twenty-five meters away... And then she lost sight of him as the train entered a tunnel.

* * *

Jaune slung his satchel back around, feeling the comfortable weight upon his chest as he made his way over the hill. Looking around, there was little vegetation, mostly stone and dirt. If Jaune squinted, he could make out a large city not so far away; his original stop.

Jaune turned around and began making his way down the hill, his left hand burning all the while.

* * *

Blake took a look at the city as she departed the train. The entire city was a marvel of modern design; high skyscrapers, bustling roads full of automobiles and dust cars, and even the air was full of dust planes and other aircrafts going about their business.

Blake made her way towards a specific building; it was cylinder in shape, connecting to several other pillars on its outskirts.

Making her way inside, Blake ignored the public terminals in search of the more expensive, but private terminal stations.

Brushing past a curtain, Blake was greeted with a line of booths, each separated from one another a meter or so of distance. Entering the nearest unoccupied booth, Blake sat down upon the seat in the middle of the booth as the door slid shut on its own.

Blake waited a moment longer before making her call.

_[You've reached the office of Director Schnee]_ came as the call connected. _[How may I help you?]_

"Yes, I wish to speak to Mr. Schnee directly, please" Blake said as the secretary finished speaking.

_[I'm sorry, but Director Schnee only speaks with those whom have booked appointments]_ the person on the other end said before asking; _[Who is this speaking?]_

"Someone who has information regarding the next attack from the White Fang" Blake answered.

_[I'm sorry, but would you like to be directed to the Atlas Police Department?]_ questioned the person speaking to Blake. _[Director Schnee is a very busy man wh-]_

"I also wish to speak in regards to the recent theft and destruction of transport #3B01 last week, and of the attempted assassination of Weiss Schnee three weeks prior" Blake interrupted, feeling slightly nervous placing most of her cards on the table so soon, but time was running out.

There was a pause, then static, and then silence as if the line was suddenly cut. Blake was prepared to possibly fight her way out as her hand tightened around the grip of Gambol Shroud.

But then it relaxed slightly as a new voice began speaking on the call; [This is James Ironwood speaking] the new speaker introduced himself, his voice deep and resonating. [Who are you?]

Blake paused as she thought up a proper response to the question; "I'm the Shadow" she finally answered, ears twitching.

There was a pause on the other end. [... No matter, we shall be speaking very soon]

"Yes we shall" Blake agreed. "I will be arriving at Schnee Dust Headquarters tomorrow morning for our chat"

[No, how abou-] Mr. Ironwood was unable to finish his sentence as Blake terminated the call. Before turning her cubicle door, ears still twitching.

In a single deft swing, she sliced the door diagonally in two, before the pieces had even began to fall, Blake kicked out with a foot, connecting with the upper half, sending it flying through the air.

Right into the face of a black and red AK-130 Android.

The improvised missile struck the android soldier hard enough to propel it into the opposite wall, where it lay unmoving.

Blake casually stepped through her destroyed cubicle door to see herself being surrounded by several more AK-130 Androids. Her bow twitched in annoyance.

**[Stop! We are placing you under arrest!] **Came the robotic order from the nearest android on Blake's left.

Blake ignored it in favor of casting her surrounding area a quick glance to see just how many were deployed against her; she rounded up to about ten or so androids in the immediate area.

**[Drop your weapon and place your hands upon your head]** the same android continued speaking. **[I repeat; drop your weap-]**

Blake slashed the speaking android in half before flipping through the air and landing behind another one, which she destroyed by splitting the machine in half.

The other droids in the room were quick to react; several of them unsheathed arm-blades, while others hung back and shifted their arms into gatling guns.

The droids with arm-blades quickly moved in to engage Blake. The droids were faster than the average human in terms of speed... but Blake was even faster.

She danced amongst the attacking droids, easily weaving in between their swipes and attacking with her own slashes.

Blake grabbed the sheath upon her back and held it in her other hand, effectively now duel wielding swords.

In a combination of extremely fast movements and attacks, Blake dealt a devastating combination of blows against her enemies, easily cutting through her attackers, and leaving them in pieces behind her maelstrom of swinging blades.

Blake landed in a crouch as the last of her melee attacking opponents fell to the floor in shambles, her head coming up as those that hung back began spinning their gatling gun arms. She shifted Gambol Shroud's form into the pistol before throwing it at the droid directly in front of her.

The bladed section of the pistol struck the android directly in the chest, but the android ignored the damage as it began firing its guns.

The android was suddenly jerked forward, causing it to begin shooting erratically as Blake yanked hard on the ribbon section of her weapon, sending the android tumbling towards, all the while, shooting wildly into the air.

All of the remaining androids began shooting as well, but Blake easily dodged as she threw her captive android at one of its fellows, letting the flying android pull her along as it struck another one.

Blake landed on the two androids before grabbing her weapon and pulling it from the android's body and charging forwards to the next target, deflecting bullets with her sheath while simultaneously shooting her pistol at the droids before her.

She shot one droid several times directly in its head, causing it to topple backwards in a heap. Blake used the defeated android as a jumping platform, leaping off of its shoulder and somersaulting through the air. all the while getting shot at.

She twisted through the air before coming down upon another android, digging both sword and sheath into its chest, then flipping off of the android's chest, Blake threw it into the air with her flip's momentum before kicking the machine into another one further back in the room.

Blake then blurred forward towards the last remaining androids, she moved so fast that it looked like there were duplicates of Blake moving in tandem, leaving after images of herself in her wake as she systematically finished off the remaining androids.

Blake took a deep breath as she sheathed Gambol Shroud and placed it back onto her back before making her way back to the entrance of the Transmit Hub.

The only sound in the area was of the noise her boots made against the tiled floor as she made her way back outside.

Her bow twitched slightly as she walked. She stopped at the lobby of the Hub before turning around back to face the area where she had just been preciously fighting, her hand tightening upon the handle of Gambol Shroud as her eyes narrowed.

She had picked up a new sound behind her as she walked, it was the sound of footsteps, someone else's footsteps, they didn't have the heavy step of the androids, and they were too light to be male as well.

So Blake waited in the lobby of the Communication Hub as whomever was behind her came closer and closer.

A moment later, whomever was behind Blake finally showed herself; it was a girl around Blake's age, around the same height as well, she had short brown hair that framed her face, greens eyes, was wearing grey stockings, a darker grey skirt with a grey blouse and black tie, and black boots that went all the way to her knees.

For a girl around Blake's age, she had on a very stern expression on her face. She calmly made her way to Blake until the two of them were only a meter apart.

"General Ironwood and Director Schnee would like to see you now" she said, her voice short and crisp. Blake caught a hint of distaste in her words. leading Blake to surmise she did not agree with her orders.

"No" Blake said as she turned from the girl and continued on her way out.

"_'No'_?" The girl repeated, almost spluttering at Blake's answer.

"No" Blake repeated once more over her shoulder. "I have already said I will be meeting them tomorrow, because I have other business to attend to currently"

Blake suddenly jumped clear of the Hub entrance as bullets began peppering the surrounding area. Blake twirled through the air once more before landing back on her feet, facing the other girl again to see her wielding large pistols, one in each hand, the barrels still smoking from being just fired.

"I must insist you accompany me" the girl said as she twirled her guns around her fingers.

Blake said nothing, but drew her weapon, an answer in and of itself as she faced off against the Atlesian agent.

But, before any actual fighting commenced, there was a loud **CAW! **as a hole was blown in the side of the building, sending both girls in search of cover as something crashed into the Communication Hub.

* * *

Jaune wiped sweat from his brow as he shouldered his small pack and felt the reassuring closeness of the satchel upon his chest as he placed another rune there.

He currently held his sword in its sheath in one hand and was in the process of buckling it back around his waist when there was a loud **SQUAWK!** and then Jaune suddenly felt himself being yanked upwards and then found himself no longer on the ground.

Looking up, Jaune found himself in the grips of a Nevermore of all things; how one got so close to a major city like Rapture without being killed was anyone's guess.

Jaune tried twisting himself out of the Nevermore's talons, but didn't have the strength to even budge the Grimm creature. He suddenly felt something weight from his hip, before looking down to see his unsecured sword, sheath, and buckle falling to the mountain ground so very far below.

_'Well that's just great...' _Jaune thought to himself as he sighed. _'Probably should have invested in the Pull Ability...'_

Jaune craned his neck to take a look up at the Nevermore currently holding him. His eyes narrowed as he gauged the distance between himself and the wing of the Nevermore.

_'Here goes nothing'_ Jaune thought to himself as he envisioned himself at a point just above the Nevermore's left wing, and in a flash of blue light, Jaune landed sprawled on top of said wing, Jaune almost pitched backwards off the Nevermore as he fought to maintain balance.

The Nevermore gave an indignant **SQUAWK!** and flipped through the air, trying to throw off Jaune, but Jaune grabbed two fistfuls of feathers and hung on for dear life.

Soon, the Nevermore righted itself and Jaune had the chance to slowly crawl his way forward, battling winds and his own stomach problems as he clawed his way up the Nevermore's body until finally, Jaune reached the head and neck of the Nevermore.

Jaune pointed his clenched fist at the neck of the Nevermore, his wrist mounted pistol came to life as it extended out of its compact form. Jaune grabbed onto one side of the Nevermore's neck as he began to shoot point-blank rounds into the Nevermore's head.

Which did absolutely nothing. In fact, the Nevermore didn't even seemed to have registered the shots at all.

So Jaune was left to think up something else as his weapon ran out of ammunition. Jaune squinted as he tried to see where the Nevermore was flying, but the winds were too wild, Jaune had to turn his head away before an idea struck.

Jaune clenched his fist and time froze, it was oddly quiet without the wind whistling in his ears anymore. Jaune hurried forward up to the Nevermore's head, pulling a short knife from his pack as he did.

His mental countdown was nearing its end as he perched himself on top of the Nevermore's bone skull crest before quickly plunged the knife into each glowing red eye socket. Twice.

Time reasserted itself, and Jaune was caught unprepared as the wind blew him backwards, Jaune rolled down the back of the Nevermore as it cried out in pain, twisting and turning in the air without the aid of its eyes.

Jaune gritted his teeth as he fought to find purchase on the shifting back of the Grimm, and fought back the rising bile in his stomach as he tumbled almost completely off the Nevermore. Luckily, he was able to grab onto the Nevermore's tail with both hands, the knife tumbling away to join his sword as it fell from Jaune's grasp.

Jaune aimed his hand at the upper portion of the floundering Nevermore and Blinked there, holding onto the feathers as the Nevermore continued to cry in pain and fly aimlessly in an ever shifting direction as the Nevermore tried to finds its bearings without sight.

Jaune watched through squinted eyes as the city got closer and closer as the Nevermore blindly flew in its direction.

Then something caught Jaune's eye, looking over, Jaune could make out a formation of Bullheads making their way towards the Nevermore, and by extension, towards Jaune. Jaune could just make out the blue and white colours of the Atlesian Military.

_'Oh Dust...' _Jaune thought, just before they began firing literally everything they had on the Bullheads.

Jaune swore as he clung even harder to the Nevermore's neck as the missiles impacted against the Grimm's black hide. Jaune heard several cries of anguish from the creature as the Bullheads continued firing upon the two of them.

Suddenly, the Nevermore began to plummet down to Remnant, right into a cylinder shaped building. Jaune watched as the Nevermore's body began to emit smoke, his eyes widening as he realized the Grimm was dead and now dissipating.

More and more smoke began to pour from the Grimm's body as it drew closer and closer to the cylinder building.

With not much else left of the line, Jaune wait several more seconds before launching himself off the back of the evaporating Nevermore, A quick Blink brought him within grasping distance of an outcropping of the building.

Jaune once again found himself hanging by a thread as he grasped the ledge on the outside of the cylinder building. He turned his head just in time to see the Grimm crash into the very same building, before finally dissipating completely.

The impact on the building also dislodged Jaune from his hold upon the ledge, dropping him right into the giant hole the vanquished Nevermore had formed.

Jaune cursed as he pumped Aura into his legs before landing on tiled flooring, creating a small crater around himself from the impact as his Aura infused legs shattered the tiles beneath him.

Looking up, Jaune couldn't see much with all the dust flying around, but from what outlines he could make out, it appeared he was in the building's lobby.

* * *

**I'm going to slowly show the backstory behind Jaune a little bit at a time as the chapters go on and we near initiation at Beacon Academy.**

******So the adventures of Jaune and Blake continue into Atlas, I wonder what Blake's planning to do... I wonder where Jaune's going to get a new sword... I wonder if Mr. Schnee is going to like Blake or Jaune... I wonder if I'm rambling...**

******Anyway, if anyone is confused with what date or year it is; it is currently the year they enter Beacon, as in the coming fall will start their first semester.**

******Blake is already 17, Jaune turns 17 in about a month or two, and yeah, things are coming to a head. **


	4. Chapter 4

**And we continue with the adventures of Jaune and Blake!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own stuffz.**

* * *

**Chapter Three: Awkward Meetings**

Jaune gave a low whistle as he got a good look at the amount of damage he had inexplicably dealt when the Nevermore he was hitching a ride upon crashed into the building.

_'Time for me to leave the scene of the crime'_ Jaune thought as he turned back to the giant gaping hole in the building and leaped upwards, aided by Aura to give himself a massive boost.

But Jaune had just gotten airborne when he felt something wrap around his right ankle; _'What the... Whoa!'_ Jaune gave a startled grunt as he was pulled back to the floor of the lobby.

Jaune landed on his two feet once more, twisting around to see what had his ankle. He saw that it was a long black ribbon secured tightly there.

A ribbon he could have sworn he had seen before.

Jaune looked up as the ribbon retracted to wherever it had come from, he could hear the sound of heels upon the tiled floor coming nearer and nearer to him. Jaune squinted as a vague outline became present in the cloud of dust around him.

"Hello, Miles" A familiar voice greeted Jaune.

Jaune's eyes widened in recognition as he heard her voice. Hands straightening his clothes and patting himself off from the floating dust as he moved towards the silhouette.

The dust finally thinned enough for Jaune to get a good look at the person before him, he gave a short bow to the girl as he took her hand and placed a kiss upon it for the third time; "Hello Ms. Belladonna. What a surprise meeting you here"

Blake this time was able to not blush at Jaune's actions, before turning around to face behind herself, Jaune looked over her shoulder to see another girl coming up to the two of them.

"It appears that my schedule has just cleared up" Blake said, speaking to the other girl. "We will be more than happy to meet with Director Schnee and General Ironwood now"

"Who's 'we'?" Jaune asked Blake, but Blake seemed to just ignore him.

"And who in all of Remnant are you?" the girl before the two of them asked Jaune.

Jaune stepped around from behind Blake to take a short bow at the girl in the grey skirt. "Hello, I am Miles Luna"

"Are you the one responsible for the destruction of Atlesian property?" The girl in the grey skirt asked, suddenly, pointing both of her weapons at Jaune.

Jaune looked the girl right in the eyes and held her gaze as he answered. "Absolutely not" he denied as he schooled his face into a look of apathy.

The girl's face retained its stern look, it could have possible become even more stern as she locked eyes with Jaune, guns still pointed at his person, wholly not believing his story.

"We're placing the two of you under arrest" the girl said as she trained one of her pistols at Blake now.

"We?" Jaune asked.

**[We]** a new, male voice said from a surprisingly undamaged speaker in the lobby.

Jaune cast his gaze around the damaged lobby as Blake's bow began to twitch. Then Jaune heard it; the rhythmic sound of metal thumping.

He twisted his head around as the sound of a large engine was heard, and from the hole in the side of the building, Jaune could see a Bullhead hovering in the air as the back hatched opened and a dozen men in blue and white uniforms jumped out, taking positions upon the rubble of the hole, assault rifles trained upon the two of them.

He turned back to face the girl in front of them to see her be joined by a brow-haired male around the same age group as them, wearing a similar uniform as the girl; a dark grey vest, white pants, and shirt with a black tie.

The newcomer stood beside the girl with the pistols and entered a stance of attention as he placed his arms behind his back.

Jaune whirled around again as the sound of thumping metal ended as the source of the noise arrived into the lobby as well to reveal several dozen Ak-130 Androids, completely surrounding Jaune and Blake.

All the androids raised their arms and transformed them into gatling guns, the sound of whirling barrels filled the air.

Jaune reached for his sword upon his left hip, and continued reaching as he felt nothing there, and then he remembered that it had fallen into the forest earlier as he was taken by the Nevermore.

He grimaced as he placed his empty hand back at his side. His eyes glanced to Blake and saw that she was not even fazed by the amount of opposition the two of them faced.

_'... Wait' _Jaune thought to himself suddenly. _'Why am _I_ still here?'_

Jaune turned to leave, facing the gathered androids behind him as he prepared to freeze time and quickly make his escape, when something caught his attention.

When suddenly, the androids cleared a path and adopted salutes in a corridor, all the way to the entrance of the building. From said entrance, Jaune could make out a figure slowly making their way towards them.

The individual was an older man, with black hair with grey streaks through the sides, he had on an elaborate coat that left a strip down his centre uncovered to show his black vest, black shirt and red tie.

Jaune's eyes narrowed at the sight of the man, he held himself with the rigidity of a military man, but the smile upon his face reminded him too much when Roman had a 'great' idea or plan and was going to try to convince Jaune into doing something incredibly stupid for a quick buck.

Jaune eyed the approaching man, and from the corner of his eye, he saw Blake turn to face the person as well.

"General Ironwood, sir!" Jaune heard the female say from behind him, and he could tell without looking that both the girl and boy behind him were also saluting the incoming general.

"At ease" the general said, waving a hand dismissively.

Jaune watched as all of the androids instantly dropped their salutes, and turned back to face the two of them, taking a stance of attention, mirroring what the boy's earlier position with their arms clasped behind their backs. A resounding clap of noise as they stomped their feet as one when they shifted positions.

Jaune still wasn't sure why he was here, he had no idea what was going on, though, Blake most likely had something to do with it if she had her weapon out before Jaune arrived via Nevermore.

And apparently, whatever she was doing, she had decided to rope Jaune into it as well.

_'Well' _Jaune thought to himself as he straightened himself to his full height. _'If the ride's paid for, might as well go on it. I mean, it probably couldn't be any worse than destroying Atlesian property with a Nevermore'_

"I presume you are General Ironwood" Blake said as the man stood in front of Jaune and her. She spoke calmly, and paid the man in front of them very little attention, as her gaze shifted between the general, the androids, and the soldiers positioned in the gaping hole in the building.

"Yes I am, miss" Ironwood answered, giving a tilt of his head at her. "I have heard you have valuable information for the Atlesian Military"

Jaune's eyebrow twitched slightly as he fought the urge to look at Blake. _'Okay, maybe she _was_ in something a bit bigger than leading a Nevermore to civilization...'_

"I wish to speak with Director Schnee as well" Blake said, looking at Ironwood dispassionately.

"Yes, Mr. Schnee is waiting for us" Ironwood said his tone jovial, almost friendly.

Jaune didn't like that tone.

It also appeared that his displeasure was sensed as Ironwood turned to him. "And whom might you be, young man?"

"He's my partner/Griffon Squadron sighted him on top of the Nevermore earlier" both Blake and the girl subordinate answered at the same time, giving Jaune himself no room to answer.

Jaune said nothing as General Ironwood's gaze shifted to something indiscernible, his face maintaining the look of apathy from earlier as the good general eyed him from head to toe.

After a moment of studying Jaune, Ironwood turned to leave; "We'll take him with us" he said as he began walking back the way he had come.

Jaune looked to Blake to see her begin following the general, Jaune easily kept pace with her as they walked past the wall of androids.

"So what exactly am I being partnered into?" Jaune asked from the corner of his mouth, his eyes constantly shifting around the surrounding threats.

"We have vital information regarding the movements of White Fang agents and possible attacks" Blake answered, also speaking quietly. Her eyes had an almost mirthful glint in them that Jaune was all too reminiscent of Neo.

* * *

**Four Years Prior**

_Jaune remained still tied to the chair, he tried wiggling out of his bonds, and when that failed, he tried to move around the dark room by hopping the chair around, that worked for the first couple of attempts until Jaune accidentally smacked into a desk, and the chair toppled over, bringing him down along with it._

_Jaune grunted as he fell, feeling the painful reverberation as the chair collided with the ground, followed by his head, leaving him slightly dazed for a moment. Jaune tried twisting out of his bonds gain, even going as far as he began to feel a slight burning sensation upon his wrists._

_Jaune stopped his struggling as he sighed; he was now in a worse position than when he started, plus, he was now stuck in an awkward position lying sideways on the ground while tied to a chair._

_Suddenly, Jaune heard the door open again, and the lights turned back on once more. Jaune blinked back spots in his eyes as they readjusted to the change in lighting._

_He heard feet upon the carpet behind him, but since he had fallen over, it was impossible for Jaune to get a good look at whoever was in the room with him unless they walked all the way around and stood in front of the desk he had bumped into._

_After a couple of seconds of waiting -that were totally not nerve wracking for Jaune at all- the other current occupant of the room finally showed their self to Jaune._

_Jaune's eyes widened in surprise to see a girl around his age looking down upon his quizzically._

_The girl in question had short brown hair, but the most striking thing about it was that only half of her hair was brown, the other half looked to be dyed pink, and then dyed again for white highlights throughout the pink portion._

_The girl was also wearing a wearing a white and pink tank top and blouse combination, followed by brown capri pants. _

_"Hello..?" Jaune greeted uncertainly after a moment of silence in which the girl did nothing but watch Jaune as he laid on the floor._

_"..." an awkward silence befell the room as the girl continued to say nothing, just watching him, Jaune shifted nervously as he continued to be scrutinized by the girl st she studied Jaune's predicament._

_"I fell over" Jaune said in an attempted to break the silence. "... And I'm tied to a chair, can you help me?"_

_"!" the girl gave a look of understanding, but she remained where she was. Still watching Jaune, finally she made her way forward. _

_"Thanks so much" Jaune said with relief, nodding his head in thanks. _'I wonder if this girl is all right in the head?'

_Suddenly, the girl's face turned into a frown as she looked down at Jaune; "..." the girl's lower lip protruded slightly, giving her face a really adorable pout as it slightly scrunched up at Jaune._

_Jaune's eyes widened as he felt the girl's sudden displeasure at him, not sure what had caused the sudden shift._

_"..." she still said nothing, continuing to frown down upon a helpless Jaune._

_This stand off went on for a bit, Jaune couldn't tell for how long exactly, though he did lose feeling his his left arm and leg. __"So... about helping me..?" he questioned as he moved against his bonds._

_"..."_

_The girl still said nothing! This was beginning to freak Jaune slightly out._

_Jaune looked around as much as his limited field of vision allowed him. _'Is she just playing with me?'_ he asked himself._

_Suddenly, his ears picked upon another set of feet on the carpet, and then Jaune felt someone grab the back of his chair and righted him. Jaune twisted his head to get a look at the person, and gaped slightly as it was the girl that he had just been talking to..._

_But that couldn't be, because she was still standing in front of him, slightly to his left, still looking at him with her smile. _

_This other version of the girl moved around Jaune to stand beside the first version of the girl, the two were exact mirror copies of each other. Then there was the sound of shattering glass, and the one he had been talking to suddenly was no more. She disappeared into panels of light that shattered into a thousand little pieces that dispersed upon touching the ground._

_The remaining copy of the girl pointed at herself, whipping out a piece of paper with the word "NEO" written on it, before sticking her hand out to shake._

_Jaune looked to the hand, to the girl's face, and then to the spot where the other copy of her had stood and then the piece of paper before realization dawned on him. _

_"Miles" he said in return as he wiggled his tied arms a bit. "I would shake your hand, but I'm a little tied up at the moment"_

_"..." the girl said nothing she placed away her hand, a look of smug pride upon her face as she covered her mouth as she had a slight laughed at him._

_Jaune frowned at the girl, not understanding what was going on for a second, before realizing belatedly that the girl before him must have had something to do with his predicament. _

_"Isn't Neo a boy's name?" he asked somewhat snidely._

_He was not prepared for the fury that came soon afterwards._

* * *

**Present Time**

"-iles, Miles, you there?"

Jaune jerked his head up as he came back up from memory lane. Looking around, he saw that he and Blake were now standing outside the damaged building, in front of the opened hatch of a Bullhead.

A hatchway that he was currently blocking as he stood standing around.

"Let's go, Miles"

Jaune looked up to see Blake looking at him, while already seated in the Bullhead across from General Ironwood and his two subordinates from earlier.

"Right" Jaune said with a shake of his head. "Lost in thought, apologies"

Jaune clambered into the Bullhead's passenger area and took a seat beside Blake, across from the girl with the two pistols. Jaune smile at the girl, and she only scowled in return, but that did not deter Jaune at all.

The hatch closed behind Jaune after he took his seat, there was the sound of the engine for a brief moment as the Bullhead took off from the ground.

Jaune eyed each one of the three before him; he didn't like it, for all he knew, they could be taking him to a secret military prison somewhere up north, like a gulag.

"So, how are you two doing this fine morning?" General Ironwood had to nearly be shouting to be heard over the roar of the engine.

"Just fine thanks/Peachy" Blake and Jaune answered at the same time.

"That's good, that's good" Ironwood said, though it was more to himself than to them.

An uncomfortable silence filled the cabin as the Bullhead continued on its way; the two subordinates of General Ironwood were constantly glaring at Blake and Jaune, distaste evident in their eyes, though the male hid it slightly better than the female, whom was almost positively fuming.

General Ironwood himself seemed either oblivious to the hostilities running rampant in the Bullhead, or was deliberately ignoring it for some reason known only to himself.

Blake was easily staring back at the male subordinate, her slanted amber eyes holding the male's attention as she gazed back unblinkingly.

And Jaune, Jaune was completely oblivious to what was going on around him as he sat completely straight in his seat, eyes and mouth closed shut as he fought against his motion sickness.

For a person whom had spent a lot of his time in a Bullhead, one would think he should have gotten over his motion sickness years ago. But alas, it was not meant to be, and now, Jaune was doing all he could to not throw up during this ride.

* * *

When the Bullhead finally arrived at its destination, it took Jaune several seconds to compose himself lest he be seen hugging the ground with tears of relief.

Jaune took several deep calming breaths as he heard the other occupants of the Bullhead leave their seats and exit the aircraft. He took one last deep breath before giving a sigh and opening his eyes.

Unbuckling himself from his seat, Jaune stood up and stretched before exiting the Bullhead, meeting up with the others already gathered outside.

Jaune let out a low whistle as he got his first good look at the Schnee Dust Company Headquarters; it was a massive skyscraper, from just where he was standing, Jaune could see dozens if not more, of employees coming and going from the building.

Though that wasn't the only Jaune was able to pick up from a subtle glance around the property of the Schnee Dust Company; There were several bunker like buildings to one side of the property, most likely holding androids, the perimeter was patrolled by several dozen uniformed company guards, and there were large metal plates situated around the grounds that Jaune was sure held Spider Droids.

Even after all those observations of the company grounds, they were still not the very first thought that entered Jaune's mind when he gazed upon the skyscraper;

_I wonder what I could steal?' _Jaune thought to himself as he stood next to Blake, facing the building as Ironwood spoke with someone wearing a dark blue uniform with the Schnee Dust Company logo on his chest and a pistol in a holster at his hip.

The general and the guard exchanged words before nods were shared and the guard stepped aside to make way for Ironwood, his two subordinates, and Jaune and Blake.

As the group entered the building, Jaune found himself in a simply lobby; well simple in the fact that there were only two receptionist sitting behind their desk in a room that could hold hundreds of people.

One of them stood up and made her way to General Ironwood, handing him a piece of paper before returning to her seat. Jaune saw the general read the note once over before crumpling the piece of paper and placing it away in his pocket.

It was not until they were passing floors in the elevator did Jaune see that it was indeed a bustling hive of activity through the glass elevator; on every floor, there were people on scrolls making calls, making calls on terminals, people with stacks of folders rushed from one end of the room to the other, and even more people just working at terminals in cubicles.

The interior of the elevator was even more tense than in the Bullhead on the way here; the five of them shared an elevator, though there was a clear divide; Jaune and Blake stand partially more to one side, the same went for the members of the Atlesian Military.

Jaune didn't let the tension get to him, though his fingers itched for the feeling of his sword hilt in his hand, but every time he had this feeling, he had to remind himself that he o longer _had _his sword.

Blake also seemed fully composed in the current situation, whether because everything was going according to plan, or because she was just that detached from everyone else, was up to debate.

Once the group finally reached the very top floor, and the elevator doors opened, did Jaune release the breath he had not known he had been holding. There hadn't been any soft elevator music, much to Jaune's relief. It would have made the trip up to meeting Director Schnee even worse.

This floor was completely different than all previous ones; there were no workers on this floor, not even a secretary or anything, instead, it was filled with armed guards all along the side of the hallway -though they seemed more to be a private army than guards- there were no other doors on the floor as well, other than the set at the end of said hallway.

Jaune's eyes narrowed in thought as he mentally ran calculations on the area of the top floor; there just couldn't be several meters of just drywall up here, there had to be another entrance to get behind the hallway walls.

Though Jaune's face betrayed none of his thoughts as he and Blake followed behind General Ironwood, with his two subordinates taking up the rear, this was not lost on either of Blake of Jaune, though Blake chose to ignore it, and Jaune turned around to giving a knowing smile at the girl, getting a scowl in return before he turned back to face the front.

All too soon, the group stood in front of the massive double doors, Ironwood knocked once upon them before twisting the knob and letting himself in, holding the door wide for everyone else behind him to enter as well.

Jaune's first impression of the room was that it was very spartan; it lacked excessive amounts of wealth being showcased along the walls of the room, the chandeliers, the personal trophies, not even a vanity mirror could be seen in the room.

The only things in the large room were plush red carpeting, an aged wooden desk, a leather chair, simple light fixtures, and a couple of pens and a lamp upon the desk. And that the entire back wall was made of glass, giving anyone in the room a nice view of the property.

The was also another person in the room, he wore a crisp white suit, he had a head of pure white hair that was cut short and styled with a part upon the left side of his head.

He was also currently writing things down upon a piece of stationary, not even looking up as Blake, Jaune and everyone else entered the room.

"Here are the so-called 'informants', Howard" Ironwood said as he closed the door.

"Thank you, James" Howard Schnee said as he finally looked up from whatever he was doing at his desk.

Jaune had a good look at really light blue eyes and narrowed at the two of them, specifically at Blake.

"You of course know who I am" He began as he stood up from his desk. Moving around to face the windows, and looking down through them. "As a man who built his own fortune and company from the bottom up, I am well versed in corporate and political enemies that would like to see me fall..." he paused as he turned to face Blake. "That said, I take threats upon my family very, very seriously"

Howard Schnee's eyes burned with an intensity that Jaune had only ever seen once before in his entire life.

The man before him probably had several skeletons in his closet, he also was not breaking labour laws by the skin of his teeth, and was probably also a control freak, but this man loved his family very much.

Howard Schnee's face brought back feeling Jaune thought he had long cast away. It was with a heavy heart that Jaune took those feelings, placed them in a metal box, and threw them away to somewhere in the abyss at the back of his mind.

"I understand complete" Blake answered, stepping forward slightly. "The attempt upon Weiss Schnee's life was a heinous act"

Jaune's eyebrows rose up. _'Someone tried to kill the Schnee Heiress?' _He asked himself. _"How did I not hear of this?'_

"And you say you have information regarding the culprits?" Howard Schnee pressed as he leaned forward upon his desk.

Jaune's eyebrows had almost disappeared into his hair, and then they fully did as Blake gave a short nod of confirmation. Jaune was now really sure that Blake had just dragged him into something he was really, _really _going to regret participating in.

* * *

**Well, the story continues forward, sorry if it looks to be going too slow, I am spending a lot of time on the before Beacon timeline because I want to do as much character building and a bit of world building before we enter the Beacon setting.**

**Anyway, tell me you thoughts and other stuff; I feel that this chapter was the worse written in this story currently.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So yeah, here be Chp. 4. Took a while because I was caught in the middle of it when school started again.**

**Disclaimer: Intellectual properties shown here are not my own.**

* * *

**Chapter Four: A Deal is a Deal**

Jaune wasn't sure exactly what he should do; his mind was telling him to bail out now, to stop time, and maybe either make a break for the elevator or just jump out the window and use his little wrist launcher to grapple and slow his descent.

But his heart -in an almost unfortunate rush of emotion- wanted him to see this through, because he will be one step closer to figuring out just what was going on with Roman... and Neo; how a group of thieves became bedmates with a Faunus terrorist sect was anyone's guess.

_'Friends...'_ he thought. _'What a strange concept'_

Jaune schooled his face to hide any lingering thoughts from showing there as Howard Schnee turned to face Jaune now. With a start, Jaune realized that while in the midst of his thoughts, he had missed out the final words said about.

The music quietly playing in the room was of no help in helping his train of thought.

Jaune mentally ran back the last couple of minutes and found out that it was confirmed that the ones behind the attempt on Weiss Schnee's life had been the White Fang, and apparently, Blake had named names; someone called Adam specifically.

"And who are you?" Howard Schnee asked, studying Jaune now.

"Miles Luna, sir" Jaune answered with a respectable nod of acknowledgment.

"And why are you here?" Mr. Schnee asked.

Jaune opened his mouth to answer, but then someone else answered for him;

"It doesn't matter why you are here, Marked Man. What matters is what you can do for me _while_ you are here" Howard Schnee said with a smirk as he pulled out his leather chair and sat down, hands steepling in front of his as he watched Jaune over the tips of his fingers.

Jaune closed his mouth with a sigh; _'Maybe I should have worn a mask or something when I was committing thefts...' _ there wasn't anything he could say now, now that the Director of the Schnee Dust Company knew who he was, especially since Jaune had perpetrated many of the thefts of entire train loads of Dust as they traveled between the Vale and Atlas border.

Jaune heard the audible sound of a weapon slide racking into place behind him, and the sound of ringing steel at the unsheathing of a sword as well.

Jaune remained completely still, knowing that any sudden movements will lead to him most likely being either outright killed in this room, or at least grievously wounded. There still was the option for attempting to escape, but Jaune didn't fancy his chances against the Schnee private army, especially without a weapon.

"What is it that I could do for the esteemed leader of Remnant's biggest Dust production and refinement company?" Jaune asked, keeping his tone civil.

"You have powers, powers that make you both a great thief, but also an even greater assassin..." Director Schnee said, trailing off as he gave Jaune a leveled look.

Jaune's face instantly turned to a frown of stony contempt before he spoke: "I am not some killer-for-hire that slits a man's throat while he is asleep in the dead of night"

Jaune spoke calmly, eloquently, but there was no mistaking the heat behind his words as he gave his stance upon what Howard Schnee was suggesting.

"Is that so?" the Schnee patriarch asked as he glanced behind Jaune for a second before fixing him with another look. "I had thought a young man of your worldly understanding would have some more knowledge on how the real world worked"

"I know what happens... I just don't _partake_ in most of them..." Jaune said, voice firm, but slightly strained, as if holding something immense back.

"I thought you would be more than understanding of the opportunity given to you" Schnee said as shuffled some papers upon his desk. "There is so much more you could do with what you have"

"I apologize, but Miles and I have a prior engagement" Blake said, interrupting the 'talks' between Howard Schnee and Jaune Arc.

"I'm sorry, but you are no longer a matter in the equation" Howard Schnee said dismissively, not even sparing her a glance. "But I thank you for the information you have provided me"

A look of surprise crossed Blake's face, and she opened her mouth to retort, but was interrupted as Jaune resumed their previous conversation.

"I know my own capabilities" Jaune answered. "But I would never stoop so low as to do the dirty work for some corporation" Jaune said, his voice rising as he went on. "I am many things; a liar, a cheat, a thief, a criminal, and maybe even a gambler at times, but I will never be someone's two-bit killer, especially never yours"

"Is that your final answer?" the Schnee asked, looking at Jaune as he leaned back in his chair, arms crossing in front of his chest as he placed the papers down.

"You can give your damn offer to an Ursa for all I care" Jaune said as he spun around a landed a swift powerful Aura punch into the stomach of the male subordinate attempting to stab Blake in the back.

Jaune felt thick resistance when his punch connected; _'Lightweight body armor'_ he thought as he pointed his left hand at the general and the girl and sent a gust of wind to knock them off their feet.

But no gust of wind appeared to knock them off their feet.

Jaune looked to his hand and then to the two people not currently being slammed into the wall. Before a laugh behind him made him face Howard Schnee once more. Comprehension dawning upon Jaune's face as he clenched his left hand and scowled.

"Your powers will be of no use here, Miles" Schnee said as he gave a bemused look at Jaune's predicament. "I'll give you one last chance to reconsider my offer..."

Jaune and Blake shared a look before Blake spun around, facing General Ironwood and his two subordinates, one whom was in the process of getting himself off the ground. Jaune raised his left hand, as the wrist mounted gun sprung out two limbs, giving his weapon a crossbow like look as he pointed it at Director Schnee. Blake pulled Gambol Shroud from her back and held it to the side as she shifted sideways to create a smaller profile.

"So this is how it is going to be..." Howard Schnee said as he stood from his desk, before pulling something from his top drawer, revealing a Mateba Dust revolver but he held it loosely at his side. "Such a shame, you could have become so much more"

"The journey won't end here"

Jaune answered before firing a bolt at Mr. Schnee, whom dodged to the side. The bolt passed harmlessly through where Mr. Schnee had been standing and struck the glass behind his desk, penetrating the window and leaving behind a coin size hole as the man leaped to the side.

Jaune ran forward and struck the wooden desk with an Aura infused kick, sending it flying backwards, toppling over the leather chair before crashing into the window, shattering it as the desk disappeared over the edge to fall thirty stories to the ground.

The door to the office came crashing open and Jaune twisted around to see the inclusion of about ten guards wearing the dark blue of the Schnee Security Force, assault rifles raised and ready.

"Kill them" Mr. Schnee said simply as he right himself, raising his revolver as he did so.

"Time to go" Jaune grunted as he took a running leap and dived out of the destroyed window, twisting around as he did so.

He cycled his through his wrist launcher's functions for second before firing it, there was a small pop, and another bolt was away, leading a trail of nylon rope as it went on its way.

After falling for several seconds more. the rope went taunt as it came to an end. Jaune was jerked as his arm took the brunt of the shock, he grunted in pain as the sudden stop of his free fall caused him to smack painfully into the window of the floor he was hanging outside of.

As he bounced off the window, Jaune was able to see Blake just a second behind him with her black ribbon tied around her arm before she crashed into the window beside Jaune feet first, shattering the glass as she landed with cat like grace upon the floor, startling the company workers even more than seeing Jaune hanging outside.

Jaune grunted as he pushed Aura into his hand before punching the glass, shattering it and allowing him to get back into the building, detaching his grapple as he did so.

He dusted himself off from the shower of glass as he and Blake made their way to the stairwell - a quick glance told Jaune they were on the seventh floor- and began rushing down flights of stairs.

The two of them had only made it down two flights of stairs before the sound of pounding feet was heard, and looking down, Jaune and Blake could see several security teams making their way up the stairwell.

The two of them doubled back and entered their current floor, slipping into a supply closet near the stairs.

Closing the door, Jaune turned on **Dark Vision** and began watching the security guards make their way up to their current floor, several teams passed the floor completely and continued upwards, while one team stopped on this floor.

Jaune watched as the team broke into groups of two and began to spread out, inspecting each row of cubicles and asking questions to their occupants.

He waited as two guards slowly made their way to where the two of them were hiding, Jaune watched them as they made their way closer and closer until they stood right outside the closet.

Jaune watched as one of them grabbed the door handle, while the second one shouldered his weapon. He waited with baited breath; he had to do this quickly, or else they would be in an even more dire situation.

The door swung open.

But the guards found it empty, closed it, made a report of their sweep; _[Room 515 clear]_ as they continued their way down the hall to the next closed door.

Around the corner, Jaune had one hand over Blake's mouth, while the other held her tightly to his body as the two of them leaning against the wall. A sweep with his enhance vision showed the close was clear before he released Blake.

She instantly sprung away from Jaune, giving him a look of shock before it turned into a confused expression, questions filled her face as she studied Jaune.

"Let's go" Jaune said quietly, ignoring her unvoiced questions as he once more made his way to the stairwell, checking it for more guards before entering it with Blake behind him.

The two of them were only able to make it down one flight of stairs before there was the sound of banging doors, and loud voices before suddenly, shots were being fired down upon the two of them.

Jaune and Blake jumped back from the railing as shots rained down upon them, sparks flew by as the rounds impacted the metal railings.

There was a lot of shouting and boot thumping now as Jaune and Blake made a quick dash down to the next floor.

A quick peek from Jaune showed that there were even more guards coming up from the ground floor towards them; the two of them were being hemmed in once more.

Jaune looked behind them at their current floor, through a window in the door, he could make out several guards making their way towards them as well, rifles raised and aimed at the door.

Jaune had a desperate plan, it was only the fourth floor, he wouldn't get that hurt front jumping out and landing upon the ground, his Aura should shield him from the blunt of the damage.

Jaune pumped Aura into his legs before giving the sixth floor door a kick. The force of it sent it off its hinges and flying down the hallway, colliding with two of the five incoming guards, sending them sprawling across the floor.

The other three stopped their advanced and instantly began firing.

_'Oh Dust...'_ Jaune thought, but before anything life threatening actually happened, Blake jumped in front of him, and almost so fast that the eye couldn't see it; began to parry away the bullets as she advanced forward.

Jaune was impressed, it took a deep understanding of the blade to be able to do that; and the hand-eye coordination of a master to be able to block so well even while weaving about.

Jaune hurried behind Blake as she made short work of the guards, using her sheath , she easily knocked the guards unconscious as the two of them made their way to the row of windows, unmindful of the screaming and terrified workers.

On their way, Jaune picked up one of the discarded rifles upon the floor as they ran, checking the chamber and the magazine, Jaune had a small smile at his luck at picking up one of the unused rifles as the two of them barreled to the windows.

Jaune raised an arm to cover his face as he crashed into the glass, shards flying everywhere as the two of them began falling, well, only Jaune; Blake had once more used the ribbon attached to her weapon to rappel down.

The two of them landed safely on the grounds of the Schnee Headquarters; Blake landed lightly on her two feet with catlike grace while Jaune was forced to flex his knees as his legs absorbed the shock of landing when he impacted the ground.

When Jaune looked up from his landing, it was eerily quiet; there was not a peep of sound on the grounds, just lush grass and the iron-wrought fences. There weren't even any of their pursuers above at the windows.

"Quickly" Blake said as she began to dash across the grass to one side of the property, where the wrought-iron fences stood tall and shiny.

There was the sound of grinding metal and gears as the large plates Jaune had noted earlier began to raise from the ground.

_'I was right'_ Jaune noted as the two of them were forced to stop abruptly as their path forward was blocked off by the large raising platforms. _'They _were_ bad news...'_

Jaune shouldered his stolen rifle as the two metal boxes finally stopped raising into the air to stand a couple of storeys above the two of them.

Suddenly, a part of the raised metal platforms descended to reveal their interiors.

Two Monty-forsaken Spider Droids.

Jaune gave a sigh, today just wasn't his day it seemed.

Jaune turned around at the sound of thumping metal to see dozens upon dozens of black and red Atlesian Knight-130's making their way to fully encircle the two of them.

_'Yeah...' _Jaune thought as he looked at his dwindling odds. _'Definitely not my day today'_

**(Scene Break)**

**Six Months Prior**

_"This is a terrible idea" Jaune noted from the cockpit of their Bullhead as he turned to his pilot. "More terrible than that time we had to hijack that Mistral cruiser"_

_"..." Jaune's partner said nothing as she steered the Bullhead, only casting a glance back at him from her seat._

_"Says you..." Jaune grumbled. "You weren't forced to hide in a desert full of Grimm for three days"_

_His partner gave a huff as she flipped some of her pink hair over her shoulder before raising an eyebrow at him before turning back to the front._

_"Any idea what the take is going to be?" Jaune asked, rolling his eyes as he buckled his sword around his waist._

_One of the girl's hands came up to make some inane gestures as an answer before holding up four fingers. _

_"Yeah, it better be four full trucks" Jaune said skeptically. "We may be doing this at night and in a recluse location, but I'm pretty sure it's going to get very loud and draw a lot of attention..." _

_"..." his partner turned to one of the hired goons, snapping her finger at him._

_She then promptly stood up from her seat and made her way over to Jaune, picking up a delicate looking umbrella as she did so._

_The girl smiled mischievously at him as she gave an experimental twirl of her umbrella._

_Jaune's frown disappeared into a small smile for a moment before it came back in full force;_

_"How many hirelings did we get for this mission?"_

_She raised her hand, palm facing down and teetered it. _

_Jaune gave a low whistle; "We had less guys when we did the Mistral job!"_

_His only answer was another wide smile before she cast a glance down at Jaune's wrist. _

_Following her gaze, Jaune activated his wrist armament, cycling through several different functions; including a medium caliber pistol, crossbow, electric saw (very useful here), and even a taser._

_"How did you fit everything here?" Jaune asked wonderously, looking at his new toy before looking back at her._

_She gave a smug smile as answer as she continued to twirl her umbrella around her finger._

_Jaune ducked slightly as to not get brained by the tip of her umbrella as he gave her a smile of gratitude. "Thanks a lot, Neo"_

_The girl gave another smug smile before she slung an arm around Jaune's shoulders -an impressive task given that Jaune stood quite a bit taller than her- her mess of bead necklaces jangled as she moved. She began to lead Jaune to the back of the Bullhead, several thugs getting up as well. _

_Jaune rolled his eyes as he detached himself from Neo, before putting his hand on top of Neo's head, slightly messing with her pink locks as he began to burrow his hand in her hair._

_Neo scowled as she pushed Jaune's hand off of her person, before using the end of her umbrella to sharply poke into Jaune's side._

_Jaune gave an exaggerated winced as he placed a hand over the damaged body part as the Bullhead's hatched opened._

_The two of them shared a look, where Jaune tilted his head in a gesture of 'ladies first' and Neo gave a small smile before jumping out of the aircraft, quickly followed by Jaune._

_The two easily landed upon the ground. Looking up, Jaune saw four large armored vehicles currently stopped in various positions in the empty district, their tires blown out and guards currently trying to get aid._

_All the while in a shootout with the other half of their hired underlings._

'We can't have that'_ Jaune thought as he raced forward and slammed the guard-holding-a-scroll's head up right into the side of the armored truck._

_There was a slight BANG! sound that raised little attention in the middle of the firefight._

_Which was perfect as Neo landed amidst two other guards; the first guard she knocked him off his feet by hooking his legs from underneath him with her umbrella before she struck the other one with a swing, striking the guard and sending him tumbling to the ground before kicking the first guard in the side of his head as he was about to get back up._

_By now, the remaining guards have caught wind of the two new individuals amongst them, but there was little they could do as Jaune and Neo easily overpowered the six other guards._

_Jaune threw several of them through the air and then having them coming crashing back down. Neo danced through the rest, using her umbrella like a sword as she bludgeoned her opponents. _

_The scuffle lasted several seconds, but that was time in which a short gun fight had been fought between their hirelings and the guards, there were bound to be a response on their way already._

_Neo gave Jaune a curt nod as she made her way to the first of the four trucks._

_Jaune stepped up in front of her and grasped the secured doors and began to push Aura into his arms and began to pull back, straining slightly as he attempted to rip the armored doors off their hinges._

_The doors buckled outwards before finally, Jaune was able to send the metal doors flying behind the two of them as Neo stepped forward, umbrella aimed to shoot any last guards._

_Which there happened to be one; more heavily armored then his compatriots outside, but that mattered little as Neo placed several dust rounds into his chest, effectively knocking him unconscious before he could even fire a shot in return._

_"Start getting these security boxes open" Jaune said to the hirelings as he and Neo moved on to the next truck._

_As the two of them went, Jaune caught several of the hirelings bringing forth a couple of portable powered saws and several black duffle bags for the loot._

_at the second downed truck, Neo and Jaune repeated what they did before; Jaune would force open the doors, and Neo would neutralize anyone inside._

_It was at the third truck did things not go as planned; currently a couple of minutes have passed and the air was filled with the sound of metal saws screeching as they cut into the security boxes._

_But what was missing was the sound of sirens as the Vale Police would usually show up around now and attempt to stop their current illegal activities._

_But there were no sirens, and that made Jaune nervous._

_"Neo, tell the two-bits to hurry up" Jaune said, looking around their surroundings. "It's long past the time for the usual armed response"_

_Neo nodded before gesturing one of them forward and began making quick precise genstures, which he scrambled to follow, dashing back to those currently working on emptying the armored trucks._

_"Ready?" Jaune asked, looking over his shoulder to see Neo nod at him. _

_With a short grunt, Jaune pulled the doors off their hinges like before._

_What Jaune didn't expect was for a red and black metal triangle thing to hit him directly in the chest and send him tumbling to the ground in a pile._

_Jaune looked up from his position upon the ground to see a miniature Spider Droid burst from the open truck, easily rendering through the metal of the armored vehicle like it was paper before it perched on its four legs before Neo and Jaune._

_Jaune got back up just in time for him and Neo to be forced to jump back as the Spider Droid fired several bolts at the two of them._

_"Since when did Atlesian Spider Droids guard family valuables and their gold bars... Unless we're robbing the Atlesian Federal Reserve!?" Jaune breathed out as he shot a look at Neo._

_"..." she gave him a shrug, keeping an eye on the Spider Droid. __  
_

_"Whatever!" Jaune growled as he dived to the side to dodge another shot. "Neo, get its attention!"_

_"!" Neo gave him a deadpanned looked before she rolled her eyes as she began firing dust rounds at it from her umbrella, though that seemed to have no effect upon the automaton at all._

_"!?" Neo crouched slightly looking around for Jaune, but finding him missing as she blocked several of the droid's cannon shots, almost toppling herself over._

_"Right here, Neo!" Jaune cried out in answer as he suddenly seemed to jump from nowhere and land upon the droid's back, directly between where its head and the torso met._

_The Spider Droid had a moment of confusion while Jaune piggybacked the AI and attempted to shoot into the (hopefully) weak spot where the two body parts met._

_"Neo!" Jaune cried from the back of the Spider Droid. "Get the loot and call in the Bullheads!"_

_Jaune turned to see her shaking her head at him in answer as she watched the droid attempt to crush Jaune with its metal body. "...__"_

_"We have bigger problems than Roman throwing a hissy fit at us for not getting all of the trucks!" Jaune snarled as he ducked back from of the arm-cannon limbs of the Spider Droid as it tried to squish him. "two and a half trucks of loot isn't a bad haul!"_

_Neo sighed as she turned to the dumbfounded thugs and began gesturing with her umbrella, causing them to instantly begin rushing back and worth; black duffle bags changing hands quickly as they tried to speed up their removal of the valuables from the open trucks._

_Jaune shuffled on top of the Spider Droid's back as the thing once more tried to brush him off of its back, Jaune stuck his wrist blaster into the small wedge-like indent and fired off an entire clip there._

_To no effect though._

_Jaune scowled as he ejected the spent magazine before slamming in a fresh one, right before he was forced to dive off the back of the Spider Droid as it curled up into a ball and rolled around to kill Jaune._

_Jaune landed back on the ground as the droid reverted to its standard form and began firing all four of its cannons at him, forcing Jaune to zigzag for his life._

_Suddenly, the Spider Droid turned away from Jaune and combined all four of its cannon, but was not pointed at Jaune, confusing him greatly before understanding hit him like a Dust round in the chest._

_"Neo!" Jaune cried. "Get back! Get back!"_

_Jaune tried to regain the droid's attention by pushing Aura into his entire body and outright ramming himself at the machine, trying to dislodge it from firing upon Neo._

_Though Jaune was able to budge the machine slightly, the Spider Droid was still able to get its empowered shot off, though just slightly off course._

_The shot, instead of hitting Neo by the fourth and last truck, the large energy blast instead struck one of the two trucks the hirelings were working one, vaporising a good chunk of the vehicle, and causing an explosion from the remains, sending hirelings flying through the air in disarray._

_"Damn" Jaune grumbled at the loss of profit before he brought his mind back to more important matters and grabbed the droid by one of its legs and attempted to flip the machine off balance._

_Jaune was able to send the machine teetering on two legs as the back two were lifted off the ground from the strength of Jaune's push, before the droid righted itself and attempted to step on Jaune, whom moved around , keeping himself behind it at best as he could._

_Jaune suddenly heard a piercing whistle from behind him, __looking up to see Neo had her umbrella up and aimed at the Spider Droid, canopy fully deployed and glowing._

_Jaune instantly Blinked away before diving to get even more distance between himself and the machine as Neo unleashed her shot._

_Jaune covered his eyes from the intense blast of light as the shot struck the Spider Droid dead center._

_Uncovering his eyes as the light faded away, he was shocked to see the Spider Droid still intact, in fact, the only damage dealt to it was that there was a bowling ball-size hole in the center of its body, exposing a mess of wires._

_Wires that could be exploited though._

_Jaune __**Bent Time**__ as he stood up and made his way to the hole in the chest of the Spider Droid. He looked at the hole and saw the somewhat charred edges of it, even as the wires peeked out from it._

_Jaune pointed his wrist shooter and began firing, reloading and continued firing. Jaune repeated this process several times, and just before time sped back up, Jaune stuck his hand inside the hole, took a hold of as many wires and cables as he could, and pulled as hard as he could._

_His hand came back out of the Spider Droid with a couple of bundles of wires._

_Just in time as Time returned to normal._

_For a second, the Spider Droid continued on as normal, and attempted to strike Jaune with its front legs._

_Jaune jumped back._

_But he didn't have to._

_Suddenly, the lights in the Spider Droid's eyes dimmed and the entire thing slumped forward, apparently out of power._

_Jaune cautiously made his way up to before tapping the side of its head several times with the tip of his sword. _

_No reaction._

_Jaune turned back to Neo before giving her a shrug._

_Neo nodded at him, slightly out of breath before giving a glance at the others currently working on the opened trucks._

_Seeing that it was to her satisfaction, she nodded to herself before accompanied Jaune quickly to the last truck._

_One last time, Jaune cast a glance behind him to see Neo nod her head with her umbrella ready before he ripped the doors off of their hinges._

_Jaune instantly jumped back and prepared for another fight._

_But there was no Spider Droid waiting for them this time._

_Instead, what greeted the two of them were several bodies._

_Jaune cast his eyes over the scene; there was the body of man spread-eagle upon the floor of the vehicle, and two more bodies at the back of the truck; no vaults in sight._

_Jaune cautiously made his way forward before checking the pulse of one of the closest bodies to them; a man wearing a white lab coat now splattered red with his own blood._

_The man had been shot directly in the back of the head, execution style._

_Jaune slowly stood up as he made his way deeper into the truck to the two other bodies._

_The two guards appeared unharmed, but from a quick check from Jaune also confirmed that the two of them were dead as well._

_Rolling over one of the bodies slumped at the back of the vault, Jaune searched for wounds, but found none._

_Checking the pistols in their holsters, Jaune only found one of them was missing a round in the magazine, the other one had remained unfired._

_Neo joined Jaune inside the truck, trying her best to have as much distance between herself and the bodies before something caught her eye upon the dead man in the lab coat._

_"..!" Neo grabbed onto Jaune's sleeve._

_Jaune turned to see her pointing down upon the dead man in the lab coat, hunkering down to see what had caught her eye, Jaune found himself looking at the wrist of the man in the lab coat, where the remains of half of a set of handcuffs were visible._

_Jaune looked to the man's other wrist but did not find the other half of the handcuffs there._

_Jaune began to earnestly search through the small area, all the while, his mind whirling at what he was looking at._

_The most likely answer was that something of extreme importance was being carried in the truck, and instead of letting whatever it was being stolen, the guards had killed the courier before committing suicide somehow._

_It was when Jaune was repositioning one of the guards did the small case fall from the loosened grip of the dead guard._

_Bending down, Jaune picked up the case and saw that it was a simple black box. Opening it, Jaune found it empty, with only a foam sleeve of a small data stick remaining._

_Another check of the guards' pockets and of the pockets of the man in the lab coat yielded nothing._

_As Jaune stooped in the truck one of the thugs came to the two of them to report the completion of their job._

_Neo nodded before sending a signal to the Bullheads for pickup, leaving Jaune alone in the truck._

_Suddenly, a weird thought came to Jaune._

_He made his way to one of the guards, opened his mouth and tried to get as good of a look at the man's teeth as possible._

_And was then astounded to find out his crazy idea had been right._

_The guards had committed suicide with the aid of fake teeth, though there still remained the question of where the data stick disappeared to._

_Checking the other guard's mouth as well, Jaune was forced to wipe his hand clean upon the dead guard's clothes when blood splattered all over his glove._

_Holding the head by its hair in one hand, Jaune used his other hand to grab the jaw and open the mouth._

_With a grimace, Jaune reached inside the mouth to pull out the cause of all the blood._

_With a cringe-worthy _SQUELCH! _something came loose from the back of the guard's mouth._

_Jaune squinted as he tried to see what he was holding in his hand, he couldn't really tell, but it felt like plastic._

_BANG! BANG! Jaune nearly jumped out of his skin before whirling around to see Neo at the opening of the truck, she had been the one to bang loudly upon the side of the vehicle._

_Jaune left the armored truck and made his way to the Bullhead, along the way, Jaune studied the bit of plastic in his hand._

_It was black and smooth with jagged edges, a bit of viscera remained on some of the edges and Jaune swiped the stuff off as he stepped into the Bullhead._

_Jaune studied the small piece of plastic in his hand, rolling it over between thumb and index finger and finding a small part of the green circuit board still attached to the piece of plastic._

_Jaune sighed as he threw the offending article out of the Bullhead as the hatch closed behind him. There was no way to get the information from the destroyed flash stick now anyway._

* * *

**So yeah, took a bit of time to get up here finally, but I guess it also didn't help that I had a completely random idea appear into my head a couple of days ago and that took a large chunk of my time out of finishing this chapter. ****That story will be posted up in a couple of days.**

**I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope you do review.**

**Have a nice day everyone,**

**Desodus**


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